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Comment by vvanders | Hacker News Reader

Wasn't that at a point where Tesla was under a huge capital crunch as well? Can't imagine what pressure he was under.

Yes, I think 2008 was a very hard year for Elon. The issue with Tesla was that something like 200 Roadsters were manufactured incorrectly and all had to be fixed at immense cost and time delay. He was also going through a divorce at the time. And all SpaceX launches had exploded off the Pacific island that they were forced to use since their competitors successfully lobbied for it to be illegal for SpaceX to launch from the USA. Rough year.

> their competitors successfully lobbied for it to be illegal for SpaceX to launch from the USA

Do you remember how the managed to do that?

ULA lobbied to ban them from a launch site (at Vandenberg) that was nearby their own, which had a very expensive rocket and very, very expensive payload on it, claiming that a SpaceX rocket launch would be too dangerous. Forced them to launch from Kwajalein Atoll, which made things much harder. Probably contributed to at least one failure, thanks to the corrosive, salty atmosphere.

Edit: Not unfair to assume that it was motivated by anti-competitive interests before any real concern about possible effects on their pad.

What was the payload that was so expensive?

A large NRO spy sat of some sort.

http://upstart.bizjournals.com/entrepreneurs/hot-shots/2013/...

His wife also decided it was a convenient time to divorce him in 2008.

His current wife also recently decided to announce a divorce. At least he is on a big winning streak with his businesses this time.

Oh goodness. Last I saw they were back together after being divorced. What a bumpy road.

Maybe they'll make it the third time he marries the same woman. He obviously is hellbent on making it work.

Where did you see Talulah announce the divorce? All I've seen was comments from Elon that they split amicably.

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