The time of Musk's famous history has been postponed, and the time of his tenth visit to China has also been postponed.
On the evening of April 17, Beijing time, people around the world focused on Boca Chica - a small village on the Texas coast where the rocket launch base of SpaceX founded by Musk is located. According to the plan, at 9 o'clock local time on the 17th (21 o'clock on the 17th Beijing time), SpaceX's "starship" will usher in the first orbital-stage test flight.
The launch was so critical that Musk arrived near the launch site more than a dozen hours early. According to foreign social media account Elon Musk's Jet, at about 10 a.m. Beijing time on the 17th, Musk's private plane landed in Brownsville, about 40 kilometers from the launch base.
However, at a meeting last month, Musk said that the success rate of the first flight of the starship is only 50%, that is, the probability of Musk receiving the world's strongest rocket and the largest fireworks in history is half the same. Whether it succeeds or fails, it will make Musk go down in history.
But neither outcome materialized. On the evening of the 17th Beijing time, SpaceX announced that due to problems with the pressurization system of the super-heavy booster, the launch time needs to be delayed for at least 48 hours. This also means that Musk will not leave Texas for at least the next two to three days, and the "Musk China trip" that has gone viral in the media will also be postponed.
Of course, as the busiest person in the world, Musk's schedule is far more than "rocket launch" and "go to China" two arrangements, as the "number one" of many companies, Musk's identity often switches back and forth.
Since the end of March, Musk has first appointed lawyers to deal with the lawsuit of Dogecoin investors; On April 9, he sent Zhu Xiaotong, a capable general, to Shanghai to participate in the signing ceremony of the energy storage super factory; A week later, Musk founded a company called X.AI Corp in Nevada to compete with OpenAI; In the midst of these complicated affairs, he continues to manage and transform Twitter. Even if you are as energetic as Musk, it will be difficult to spare another weekend to travel to China.
Musk may not be the only one with a tight schedule. According to Chinese and foreign media reports, Musk will meet with relevant people from both political and business circles during this China trip, and the two sides may need to further coordinate their respective times.
In addition, it is worth noting that in the context of continuous friction in Sino-US economic and trade fields, Tesla's continuous expansion of investment in China has caused dissatisfaction among some people in the United States, which may also be one of the possible reasons for the postponement of the visit to China.
A
With the Starship launch delayed, Musk's Twitter bombing came to an end.
Even if the probability of success is only 50%, Musk still can't hide his excitement about the starship launch. On April 15, Musk tweeted, "Maybe it will fail, but it's guaranteed not to be boring!" (Success maybe, excitement guaranteed!) pictured with the starship standing on the launch pad, the sun just rising in the distance.
Two days later, until the original launch time, Musk posted more than a dozen tweets in succession, and also began a "countdown" to the starship launch.
In fact, as early as April 6, nearly two weeks before the scheduled launch, Musk couldn't wait to start the Twitter bombing.
Musk, who couldn't hide his excitement, also pinned a tweet released in September 2019. The tweet is accompanied by a starship in the night, and the text is from the famous poem "Don't Walk Gently into That Good Night" by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, which is known to the public for the movie "Interstellar".
It's no wonder Musk is so excited, he and SpaceX have been preparing for this launch for several years, and this mission is not only related to the progress of his Martian dream, but also of great significance to the entire field of space exploration. In an article in the journal Physics Today, scientists predict that "if the starship is successfully launched, it will greatly enhance our space capabilities and qualitatively change the way astrophysics missions are constructed." Space astrophysics missions have been severely limited by the capabilities of launchers, which have not changed substantially in 20 years. ”
Because of this, not only Musk and scientists, but also people around the world are quite concerned about the launch, and related topics quickly appeared on the hot search lists of major social media, and the heat gradually subsided as the launch announcement was delayed.
B
After acquiring Twitter, Musk became the most flown and busiest billionaire. Starship launches may be Musk's most important recent agenda, but beyond that, Musk has a lot of things to do.
Since April, his private jet has frequently traveled between California, where Tesla and Twitter are headquartered and Tesla Gigafactory and SpaceX launch base are located.
Of the several companies Musk manages, Twitter, which has caused him the most trouble. Since April, Musk's transformation of Twitter is still struggling to advance amid controversy.
In early April, Twitter began withdrawing the blue badge for unpaid users, a move boycotted by prominent organizations and individuals, including The New York Times and basketball star James. The service, which began in 2009, was originally free of charge.
On April 9, Twitter labeled the BBC account as a "Government Funded Media," prompting protests from the BBC, which described itself as an "independent media."
Two days later, on April 11, a BBC reporter went to Twitter headquarters to find Musk's theory, but in the interview, Musk was "full fire", not only questioning the BBC's "fake news", but also expressing opposition to banning Tik Tok, "I am generally against blocking anything." Musk said.
In addition, Musk has also divided some of his energy in the recent hot AI industry.
In March, Musk signed a joint letter with experts in the field of artificial intelligence and company executives, calling for a six-month moratorium on the development of a system more powerful than GPT-4, citing the potential risks of the new technology to society. On the other hand, some media found that on March 9 this year, Musk founded an artificial intelligence startup called X.AI in Nevada, USA, and also hoarded 10,000 GPUs, and the outside world speculated that it would compete with OpenAI.
On April 17, Musk's plans were revealed, and he said in an interview with Fox News that he would launch an AI called TruthGPT, "I will develop something I call 'TruthGPT,' or an artificial intelligence that tries to understand the nature of the universe and seek the truth to the greatest extent." Musk said.
In Musk's eyes, this move is not to grab the market for OpenAI, but to save civilization. "AI is more dangerous than poorly designed airplanes or bad car production. Because it has potential risks, no matter how small humans think this possibility is, it is not insignificant. Musk reiterated his warnings about the potential risks of AI in the interview.
C
Since April, Musk's tweets have accounted for nearly half of the content related to Starship launches, and Tesla, Twitter, AI and other related topics are interspersed. The news of Tesla's energy storage factory landing in Shanghai was drowned out by these topics.
Compared with the expectations before the launch of the starship, Musk is very calm about the signing news of the energy storage super factory. For this news, Musk only forwarded the news of Tesla's official account and explained that the purpose of the new factory is to "supplement the output of the Megapack factory in California."
In the third chapter of Tesla's grand blueprint announced recently, energy storage is an important part of the vision of 100% sustainable global energy, and the energy storage super factory project is an important infrastructure to achieve the goal. Shanghai, the energy storage super factory that has not yet started, as Tesla's first energy storage super factory outside the United States, even if it is not as significant as the first flight of the starship, it is at least worth celebrating by Musk.
It is worth noting that with the exception of this project, Musk's recent reaction to news about China has been lukewarm. A few days ago, Musk's mother just finished her trip to China, during which she frequently interacted with Musk, and Musk did not tweet about it; In addition, Tesla was not present at the Shanghai Auto Show, which just opened on April 18.
The outside world speculates that not participating in the Shanghai Auto Show may be related to the 2021 female car owner rights protection incident, but in fact, this is not the first time Tesla has been absent from the domestic auto show, and Tesla did not participate in last year's Beijing Auto Show and Chengdu Auto Show. The relevant person in charge of Tesla once explained, "Tesla does not classify itself as a car company. Artificial intelligence, energy and other fields are also the focus of Tesla's attention.
The above-mentioned various performances of Musk and Tesla, coupled with the fact that Tesla and relevant domestic departments have not responded to the news of Musk's visit to China, indicate that both sides hope to dilute the impact of this incident.
In other words, just as the outside world is suppressing the expectations of the starship launch, Musk is also lowering the expectations of the outside world about his possible trip to China.
After the news of the energy storage super factory landing in Shanghai was officially announced, it quickly attracted controversy in the United States. Some U.S. politicians have said the deal is "very worrying," and some agencies have pressured Tesla to enjoy government tax breaks while entering the Chinese market.
In fact, not only Musk, but also many multinational executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook are facing a "tightrope walking" situation. For these executives, China is one of the largest overseas markets and is trying to attract foreign investment, but at the same time, the constant friction between China and the United States has forced them to consider the risks behind it. At this point in time, Musk has increased his investment in China, obviously need to be cautious and low-key.
Resources:
"Shanghai International Auto Show Preview: New Energy is Menacing, Tesla is Absent Again" Chengdu Business Daily
"Musk Founded 'Truth GPT': An AI That Cares and Understands the Universe Is Less Likely to Destroy Humanity" surging news
"Musk 'full fire' to the BBC, while expressing opposition to banning TikTok" Global Times
"The world's strongest "starship" is about to appear, can Musk rewrite space exploration? 》Phoenix Network Technology
"Musk votes for China again" alphabet list