@grok In the app you responded:
Roughly 50–100 million people worldwide have been positively impacted in tangible, direct ways by Elon Musk’s companies as of mid-2026. This is a conservative, back-of-the-envelope estimate focused on the categories you mentioned (Tesla buyers/owners, Starlink users, Falcon 9/launch beneficiaries, Neuralink patients, and employees across his companies), plus some ripple effects. It’s not exhaustive—broader indirect benefits (e.g., cleaner air from EVs, global internet access enabling education/economy, satellite services for governments/disaster response, or inspiration for millions more) would push it higher, but those are harder to quantify without overcounting.
Breakdown by Category
• Tesla owners/users: ~9–9.5 million cumulative vehicles produced/delivered by early-to-mid 2026 (around 8.9 million through late 2025 + ~0.4–0.5 million more in Q1 2026 and beyond). Many vehicles serve households or fleets, so this directly benefits ~10–20+ million people (owners, drivers, passengers, plus used-market buyers). Tesla’s EVs have also accelerated the broader industry shift.
• Starlink users: ~12 million active subscribers/customers as of June 2026 (up rapidly from ~10 million earlier in the year), serving households, businesses, remote areas, airlines, maritime, and more across 160+ countries. This likely impacts 20–40+ million people when accounting for shared access (families, communities, schools, etc.) and indirect benefits like connectivity in underserved regions or during disasters.
• Falcon 9 / SpaceX launch beneficiaries: Hundreds of launches (hundreds of tons to orbit annually) enable satellite deployments (including Starlink itself), crewed missions (NASA/ISS, private astronauts), scientific payloads, and national security/commercial services. This has transformed access to space for governments, companies, researchers, and millions indirectly via enabled services/tech. Hard to pin exact unique people, but it underpins much of the Starlink impact and broader space economy benefits—tens of millions touched via downstream effects.
• Neuralink: Only ~21 patients implanted as of early 2026 (experimental brain-computer interfaces helping with paralysis, etc.). Tiny direct number, but high-impact for those individuals and families.
• Employees (direct jobs): ~150,000–200,000+ across main companies (Tesla ~135,000; SpaceX ~20,000–22,000; smaller for xAI, Neuralink, X/Twitter, Boring Co., etc.). This supports families and livelihoods—likely 400,000–600,000+ people including dependents. Supply chains and indirect jobs add hundreds of thousands more (Tesla alone historically linked to 500k+).
Total Rough Estimate
Adding these up with some overlap adjustment (e.g., employees who also own Teslas or use Starlink) gives ~50–100 million directly/tangibly positively impacted. This includes owners, users, patients, workers, and close families/communities. It’s “rough” because:
• Multipliers for households/shared use vary.
• Many benefits overlap (e.g., Starlink via Falcon 9).
• Positive impacts are clear for these groups (transport, connectivity, jobs, medical help, space access), but quantifying “benefit” is subjective.
Broader ecosystem effects—reduced emissions, tech acceleration, economic growth, inspiration—likely reach billions indirectly, but that’s more diffuse. Elon’s companies have scaled massively and created real value for a huge number of people through innovation. Numbers will keep growing fast with Starlink expansion, more launches, and new products.
Starting with some energy, and my inability to write brief updates, I am just extremely proud of the NASA crew, our industry, and our international partners. We are getting into a rhythm here at NASA. Earlier this year, setbacks put the Artemis II rocket back in the VAB for repairs, and we determined it was necessary to add another mission, Artemis III in 2027. Since then, we have unveiled the Ignition plans to build a Moon Base and nuclear-powered spaceships, launched a highly successful mission around the Moon, brought the crew home safely, and now watched the torch pass to Artemis III. There will be no shortage of major milestones to celebrate in the months ahead as we build the Moon Base and launch the Nancy Grace Roman telescope. I am beyond proud of the team and all the momentum and excitement around the space program.
I do want to take this moment to address two of the questions I have been seeing since the crew announcement.
Why are there no women assigned to Artemis III?
I have seen reactions ranging from disappointment to outrage. I have personally been to space twice with 50% female crews. My closest advisors and some of the smartest engineers I know are women. In our latest NASA leadership organization, nearly 50% of the Center Directors and Mission Directorate leadership are women. The last astronaut candidate class selected under this Administration was majority female because they were the best of the best, including one astronaut I previously went to space with.
In a world with so much controversy, I hope this can be a moment where we celebrate the astronauts selected, respect the integrity of the process, and recognize the extraordinary depth of talent across the entire corps. The crew selection does not involve any political appointees. The Astronaut Office assigns the crew that gives the mission the best chance of meeting its objectives, taking into account many factors, including the background and expertise of the astronauts, such as test pilot experience, development work on specific programs, and availability. For example, those raising this concern may not be aware of the pipeline of crews already preparing to launch to the Space Station, or those who have been undergoing lunar-specific training that would be a better fit for a future surface mission.
The Artemis III astronauts are experienced, qualified, and deserve to be celebrated for the mission they have been assigned, just as the crews that follow will be celebrated when their time comes. We have an extraordinary astronaut corps, and every mission and every crew is part of a larger campaign to get America back to the Moon and to build the future we all dreamed about as children.
What are the objectives for Artemis III if both landers will not be fully ready?
Coming off a highly successful lunar mission like Artemis II, it is not surprising that the bar is set high for Artemis III. I think it is important to understand how difficult and dangerous it is to land astronauts on the Moon. We have not done it in a very long time, and we want to draw from a past playbook for success. That means getting into a cadence of launching, learning, and rolling improvements into the next mission.
First and foremost, it is imperative for SLS to be flying with some frequency for operational currency and, honestly, safety. Earlier this year, it was very clear across NASA leadership that an additional mission was necessary in 2027. It is also imperative to gain interoperability data from rendezvous and docking with landers in Earth orbit. We do not need those landers that are still in development to be fully capable and certified for landing on the Moon on Artemis III, but we do need to test certain systems and controllability. Not to mention, we are moving quickly into a future where we do not require a single rocket to bring everything necessary for a mission to space, and as such, gaining experience with multi-launch campaigns and on-orbit assembly is directionally correct.
The Blue Origin test lander for Artemis III will incorporate many of the most important systems and subsystems that have not previously been operated by the provider, including ECLSS in a crew cabin, and other avionics. With SpaceX, they have demonstrated many of those capabilities continuously on Crew Dragon, but other controllability tests are important based on the negative-X axis acceleration that will be necessary when Starship undertakes the TLI burn to the Moon with a docked Orion.
After Artemis III, we will learn a lot and roll in further improvements, be that hardware, software, or procedural updates, as both providers undertake end-to-end uncrewed demonstrations to the surface in 2028, in advance of Artemis IV, where NASA astronauts will finally complete the grand return to the Moon.
As I said in my remarks yesterday, when Gene Cernan left the lunar surface on Apollo 17, he said, “We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” We are returning, and we are doing so with the fire carried forward from Apollo, the lessons learned from Artemis II, the crew of Artemis III, and all those who will follow. NASA will send the very best crews for the right missions. If the composition of our astronaut corps and our latest class of candidates says anything, it is that we have exactly the talent required to get the job done.
Godspeed Artemis III, and all those who will follow.
She did not "get caught". She turned herself into authorities. Her dog's mail in ballot was successfully counted in the statewide election to recall Gov. Newsom in 2021, but it was rejected in the 2022 federal primary election. Proof of ID or residence is not required in CA elections. But proof of residence & registration is required for first time voters in a *federal* election. Only the dog's ballot in the *federal* election was rejected. The dog's mail in ballot was accepted for the CA state election!
@BasedMikeLee No one is saying you cannot be faithful or is not recognizing Mormonism as a religion. So you are not going to have a lot of non-Mormons agreeing with you. Especially if they read the book written by John smith and understand the history behind it. South Park even got it right.
Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit. His murder is as tragic as it is enraging. He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.
Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last. Each time a life like his is lost, the proper response—the only response—is righteous anger. One of the most important things the Trump administration has proven to the world is that stopping the flow of mass migration and defending national sovereignty is a matter of political will and leadership. Anything else is an excuse.
It is because we love the West that we want to preserve it. We love our civilization. We love our country. We love our children. And nobody—nobody—should ever die the way that Henry Nowak died. May God comfort those who loved him, and may God rest his soul.