- Elon Musk's private jet hasn't flown to Starbase in almost three months, per jet-tracking data.
- He has flown to airports near SpaceX HQ in LA, however, and could have used its planes to fly to Starbase.
Elon Musk's private jet hasn't traveled to the airport near SpaceX's main launch site in nearly three months, according to Jack Sweeney, a college student who has made a name for himself publicly tracking flight data.
On Friday, Sweeney tweeted that the private plane hadn't visited the airport near Brownsville, Texas since October 14 — almost two weeks before Musk bought Twitter. Prior to Musk's Twitter acquisition, Brownsville, Texas was one of the private jet's most frequent destinations, per Sweeney's flight data. Sweeney uses bots to scrape and post public flight data that can be found on the ADS-B Exchange.
Of course, Musk could've traveled there using other means of transportation. The 20-year-old said on Twitter that it was possible that Musk could have used one of SpaceX's designated planes for a trip to the launch site in Starbase, Texas, but deemed it "unlikely" based on previous observations of his flight data.
"Most often the jet is in San Francisco before the Twitter takeover it was rarely there," Sweeney tweeted via his new Twitter account @ElonJetNextDay. "This would suggest Twitter is a significant distraction to Tesla & SpaceX."
SpaceX's Starbase hub is over 2,000 miles away from Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco, where Musk has been known to sleep at the office since acquiring the company in October. Meanwhile, Tesla's Fremont Factory is just over an hours drive from the social media company's headquarters.
However, Musk's private jet has flown to airports near SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California since the Twitter acquisition, including Los Angeles International Airport, Sweeney's data shows. The SpaceX headquarters is about a 6-hour drive from Twitter's office, but much of SpaceX's testing and production takes place in Starbase, near Brownsville, Texas. Starbase serves as the hub for Starship and Musk has been pushing for SpaceX employees to move to Starbase for years. On average, SpaceX launched a rocket every six days in 2022.
Musk and spokespeople from SpaceX and Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication. It is unclear whether Musk has resorted to more virtual meetings at SpaceX as a result of his time in San Francisco.
Last month, NASA chief Bill Nelson reportedly expressed concern over Musk's preoccupation with Twitter, but was reassured by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell that the agency has "nothing to worry about." Shotwell has served as SpaceX's President and COO for 21 years and in November, Musk reportedly moved a top Tesla lieutenant, Omead Afshar, into a lead role on Starship production at SpaceX.
Tesla investors have also expressed concern over Musk's focus on Twitter. Last month, a top Tesla shareholder said he believes the billionaire "abandoned" the company.
"I continue to oversee both Tesla & SpaceX, but the teams there are so good that often little is needed from me," Musk said on Twitter in December.
After buying the social media company, Musk admitted in November: "I have too much work on my plate" and has said he plans to eventually find someone to serve as CEO of Twitter.
From SpaceX, Twitter, and Tesla to Neuralink and Boring Company, Musk is involved in a lot of companies. In 2021, he said that he divides his time based on the "crisis of the moment" and that SpaceX's Starship project "absorbs more of my mental energy than probably any other single thing."
Historically, the CEO has said he has worked up to 20 hours a day and has been known to sleep on Tesla's factory floor. After purchasing Twitter, Musk said his workload jumped from "70 to 80 hours a week to probably 120." And at Twitter's headquarters, Musk has said he's slept at the office and even had bedrooms set up at the site.
Ultimately, Musk has said he believes his focus on Twitter will be temporary.
"In the grand scheme of things, the amount of cognitive load that Twitter represents is low," Musk said in a Twitter Spaces meeting in December. "It is a much simpler problem than Tesla or SpaceX obviously by a country mile."
Do you work for SpaceX, Tesla, or Twitter? Reach out to the reporter from a non-work email at gkay@insider.com