/sci/ - Science & Math

Jeff Fousts review of the book "Elon Musk" by Walter Isaacson
tl:dr there are a lot of errors in it
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https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4659/1
> Review: Elon Musk
> Isaacson focuses much of his attention on trying to figure out Musk’s personality: “Could he have been more chill and still be the one launching us towards Mars and an electric-vehicle future?” His book is an argument that he could not; that Musk’s focus, snap decision-making, and sometimes brusqueness are all essential to his success, factors that Musk himself, and some who know him well, attribute to Asperger’s Syndrome. “Elon is not an ass, and yet sometimes he will say things that are very assholey,” said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, who has worked with Musk for more than two decades.
> Unfortunately, for all the access Isaacson had for the book, including with Musk and his friends and family, the book is riddled with errors. Some are minor, like incorrect dates: a photo with Musk in a Tesla conference room with a SpaceX launch playing on a screen is dated 2008, but the launch shows a Falcon 9, which made its debut in 2010. (A closer inspection of the image suggests the launch was CRS-14, in 2018.) Isaacson writes that “in 2014, SpaceX built a rudimentary launchpad” at Boca Chica, Texas; all SpaceX did in 2014, and the next few years, was moving dirt around there. He also writes that Musk has been “warmly embraced” by the Pentagon “because SpaceX was the only American entity capable of sending major military satellites and crews into orbit.” That is no doubt a surprise to both United Launch Alliance, which continues to launch major military satellites, and the Pentagon, which has no crews in orbit. And those are just a few examples of varying degrees of severity.