He's actively holding the program back at this point. Top engineers in this industry are increasingly reluctant to join a company with a such a toxic culture and public reputation tainted by musk.
Pre-trump 1 SpaceX was a tough place with a slightly off vibe but otherwise strong industry reputation.
Post-trump 1 SpaceX became a place you put in a couple years so that you could get a more stable job wherever you wanted
Post DOGE SpaceX is a place you really have to hold your nose to work at and coming out of that company increasingly labels you as a possible culture problem. I've seen a lot of SpaceX people getting turned down during interviews because they're either toxic or present a risk of toxicity.
And yet, the ones there just achieved an engineering miracle. So that probably shows that ones turned down were probably turned down because they didn't add anything positive to the company.
The same top engineers not achieving the same or even similar things? It's okay to dislike the culture, in fact they should be mad as hell at it. But if you can't/won't join'em, beat'em.
(But lose the bastard at the top, OK?)
Source: Everyone else in SpaceXs rearview mirror - If the top engineers were elsewhere they would be ahead
Pre-trump 1 SpaceX was a tough place with a slightly off vibe but otherwise strong industry reputation.
Post-trump 1 SpaceX became a place you put in a couple years so that you could get a more stable job wherever you wanted
Post DOGE SpaceX is a place you really have to hold your nose to work at and coming out of that company increasingly labels you as a possible culture problem. I've seen a lot of SpaceX people getting turned down during interviews because they're either toxic or present a risk of toxicity.
The same top engineers not achieving the same or even similar things? It's okay to dislike the culture, in fact they should be mad as hell at it. But if you can't/won't join'em, beat'em.