SpaceX pursued the sniper theory for more than a month. A few SpaceX employees told me that they did not stop this line of inquiry until the Federal Aviation Administration sent the company a letter definitively saying that there was no gunman involved. It would be interesting to see this letter, so I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the FAA in the spring of 2023. Because the federal FOIA process moves slowly, I did not expect to receive a response in time for the book. But it was worth a try anyway.
No reply came in 2023 or early 2024, when the final version of my book was due to my editor. Reentry was published last September, and still nothing. However, last week, to my great surprise and delight, I got a response from the FAA. It was the very letter I requested, sent from the FAA to Tim Hughes, the general counsel of SpaceX, on October 13, 2016. And yes, the letter says there was no gunman involved.
However, there were other things I did not know—namely, that the FBI had also investigated the incident.
For those who don’t feel like reading the whole thing, this is in reference to the Amos-6 mission in which SpaceX lost a Falcon-9 and an expensive satellite over a fueling catastrophe. Apparently the company tried to salvage their image and pushed a sabotage narrative which was frankly untrue.
the company tried to salvage their image and pushed a sabotage narrative
I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to say that “the company” pushed a sabotage narrative. I think the article makes it pretty clear precisely who at the company was pushing the sabotage narrative.
Hint: It was not Gwynne Shotwell :)
The sniper idea was crazy. It’s a 1 mile shot so you would need a pro. Even though it’s a big target. And speaking of target the competitors would also need to know exactly where to shoot for an explosion so the bullet would be thrown away (?) and never found.
You’d likely need a gunman capable of shooting JFK from the present.
With Musk’s public perception at all time lows, I don’t think they should be giving people ideas.
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