FMNN INVESTIGATES · OPINION & ANALYSIS
In 2008, public money kept SpaceX and Tesla alive. Since then Musk's company has taken over the moon program, Tesla sold self-driving that wasn't, and Boring started digging under sinkhole country in Nashville.
By Joseph J. Jackson, Founder of FMNN and author of The Death of the American Dream. Published Nov. 5, 2026. Facts current as of Nov. 4, 2026.
The short version
Days before Christmas 2008, a $1.6 billion NASA contract saved SpaceX. In 2010 the Energy Department loaned Tesla $465 million, which Tesla repaid early.
SpaceX won the only moon lander contract. NASA's inspector general found in March 2026 it would not be ready for the planned June 2027 landing.
A California judge ruled "Full Self-Driving" was "unambiguously false." The Boring Company is now tunneling under Nashville, which federal researchers call a "sinkhole hotspot."
The Subsidy King: a five-part FMNN Investigates series
The Rescues and the Broken Promises (you are here)
Previously: In Part 1, Musk left Pretoria, was removed as CEO of Zip2 and PayPal, and pushed out the man who founded Tesla. By late 2008, both of his new companies were nearly out of money. Today SpaceX rockets lift off from Florida's Space Coast on contracts the public pays for. This is how that started.
What you need to know
This is Part 2 of a five-part opinion and analysis series. Every fact comes from the record. Where the record is disputed, we say so. The phrase "hijacking the space program" is opinion, and labeled that way.
The Christmas rescue
Late 2008 is where Musk's two companies should have died, and where public money kept them alive.
SpaceX. Falcon 1 failed three times. The fourth flight reached orbit on Sept. 28, 2008. Three months later came the $1.6 billion NASA cargo contract. [1][2] By 2012, SpaceX's Dragon capsules were berthing at the space station.
Tesla. Days after the NASA call, Tesla's investors put in more money. [2] In 2010, the Department of Energy loaned Tesla $465 million under a program Congress created and President George W. Bush signed. The loan reopened a shuttered auto plant in Fremont, California. [3]
Credit where it's due: Tesla repaid that loan in May 2013, nine years early, with interest. [3] The New York Times also reported that the Energy Department softened the loan's conditions several times, amendments that may have kept Tesla from falling into default. [4]
And the loan was only the start. The Washington Post found Tesla has earned $11.4 billion selling regulatory credits that federal and state rules force other carmakers to buy, and Nevada pledged $1.3 billion in 2014 for a Tesla battery factory. [5]
Taking over the space program
The phrase "hijacking the space program" is opinion. Here is the record underneath it.
The money. SpaceX makes up most of the $38 billion. NASA alone has put about $14.9 billion into SpaceX missions, Benzinga reported from The Washington Post's data. [6] SpaceX's president said in 2024 the company held $22 billion in government contracts. [7]
The moon. In 2021, NASA picked SpaceX alone to build the lander for Artemis 3, the first crewed moon landing since 1972, in a $2.9 billion contract. [8] That lander, a version of Starship, fell behind. In October 2025, acting NASA chief Sean Duffy reopened the contract to rivals, which drew Musk's anger. [9] A March 10, 2026, NASA inspector general report found Starship's lander would not be ready for the planned June 2027 landing; NASA has since pushed the first landing to 2028. [8]
The administrator. In December 2025, the Senate confirmed Jared Isaacman as NASA's 15th administrator. [10] Isaacman is a billionaire who has flown to space twice on SpaceX spacecraft and has strong ties to Musk and SpaceX, Spaceflight Now reported. [11] His February 2026 Artemis overhaul kept SpaceX's Starship at the center of NASA's moon plans, alongside Blue Origin. [8]
The war. Starlink, SpaceX's satellite internet network, now carries military communications. On Oct. 14, 2026, Ukraine's military version of the service was speed-capped mid-war, and drone missions failed. Musk said the limits are "decided by the U.S. military and ultimately POTUS." (FMNN covered it here: Musk Blames Trump as Ukraine's Military Starlink Is Throttled.) Whoever gave that order, one private company owned the switch.
NASA's moon program, the Pentagon's satellites and a U.S. ally's battlefield links now run through one man's company. No vote put it there. Contracts did.
Promises, not products
The "fake companies" charge is wrong, but the promises are a different story.
Full Self-Driving. In October 2016, Musk said a Tesla would drive itself from Los Angeles to Times Square by the end of 2017 without a single human touch. It didn't. In 2019 he said he was "very confident" Tesla would have robotaxis by 2020. [12] Tesla sold "Full Self-Driving" as a paid option for years. In December 2025, a California judge ruled that the name was "actually, unambiguously false and counterfactual," and the state's DMV ordered Tesla to fix its marketing or face a 30-day suspension of its license to sell cars there. Tesla complied, then sued to clear the "false advertiser" finding from its record. [13][14]
The tunnels. The Boring Company promised cities fast underground transit. Between 2017 and 2021 it canceled or postponed projects in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Jose, a Baltimore-to-Washington line, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. [15] Its one working system for years was a 1.7-mile loop under the Las Vegas Convention Center, where Teslas with drivers carry passengers. [16] Federal workplace-safety regulators fined that Vegas tunnel more than $100,000 over flooding; Boring contested the violations. [17]
Nashville, and the sinkhole question. Now Boring is digging its biggest project yet: the Music City Loop, a roughly 10-mile, nearly $300 million tunnel from downtown Nashville to the airport. [18] Tennessee's governor said yes when other cities walked away. The state donated the underground right-of-way and created a new subterranean authority to oversee it, and the state transportation department let the project skip a full environmental review. [17][19][20] Nashville's own Metro Council says the company won't work with local government. [18]
The ground is the problem. U.S. Geological Survey researchers call Nashville a "sinkhole hotspot": most of the city, including the tunnel route, sits on limestone that water slowly dissolves. [21] In October 2026, a Southern Environmental Law Center report warned the tunnel could trigger sinkholes and contaminate groundwater, and a critic told the Tennessee Lookout that taxpayers would end up paying to fix any sinkhole that opens along Murfreesboro Road. [19] Tennessee law holds anyone who causes a sinkhole on a neighbor's property strictly liable. [20] Bloomberg's headline on the project: Nashville's mayor is "hoping no one dies." [22]
To be clear about the record: as of Nov. 4, no sinkhole has been tied to the tunnel. Boring says it will avoid boring where karst is found, and that the system will be safe and permitted. [19][22] The warning is that the company that ghosted Chicago, Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale is now digging under a sinkhole-prone city, on land the state gave away, with the local government shut out.
SolarCity. In 2016, Tesla paid $2.6 billion for SolarCity, a struggling solar company run by Musk's cousins, where Musk was the largest shareholder and board chairman. Shareholders sued, calling it a bailout. Tesla's other directors settled for $60 million. Musk went to trial and won. The judge ruled the price was fair, but found Musk was more involved in the deal than he should have been given his stake on both sides. [23][24]
Reality of the Situation
What his defenders say: Tesla paid its loan back, SpaceX wins because it's the best, and the tunnels are safe.
What the record says:
"Tesla paid it back." True. Tesla repaid its $465 million federal loan nine years early. [3] That loan was one piece of $38 billion; Tesla's regulatory credit sales alone total $11.4 billion. [5]
"SpaceX wins because it's the best." Partly true. SpaceX's rockets do fly more often than anyone's. But winning also meant a sole-source moon lander contract that the government's own inspector general found running behind, and an administrator with close ties to the company. [8][11]
"The Boring tunnel will cause sinkholes." Unproven. Geologists and an environmental law group warn it could; no sinkhole has been tied to it yet, and Boring says it will avoid karst. [19][21]
Next, in Part 3: Musk goes inside the government that pays and polices him, and feeds USAID "into the wood chipper." Read Part 3
Sources
Republic World, on Musk's 60 Minutes account of 2008 — https://www.republicworld.com/science/space/nasa-2008-contract-saved-spacex-from-fourth-straight-failure-admits-elon-musk ; Space Odyssey Hub, Falcon 1 Flight 4 — https://spaceodysseyhub.com/tools/space-race-timeline/2008-09-28
SpaceNews, on Musk's 60 Minutes interview with Scott Pelley — https://spacenews.com/?p=14891
Autoblog, "Tesla pays back $465M DOE loan," May 22, 2013 — https://www.autoblog.com/2013/05/22/tesla-pays-back-465m-doe-loan-early/ ; TIME, May 2013 — https://business.time.com/?p=80649
Peter Eavis, "In a Plus for Electrics, Tesla Repays a Big Federal Loan Early," The New York Times, May 23, 2013 — https://clips.cato.org/sites/default/files/NYT%20-%20Michaels_1_1.pdf
Desmond Butler, Trisha Thadani and colleagues, "Elon Musk's business empire is built on $38 billion in government funding," The Washington Post, Feb. 26, 2025 — https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/elon-musk-business-government-contracts-funding/
Benzinga, "Report Says Elon Musk's Businesses Have Been Awarded $38 Billion…," Mar. 3, 2025 — https://www.itiger.com/news/2516463732
Built In, "Inside Elon Musk's Government Contracts" — https://builtin.com/articles/elon-musk-government-contracts
NASA Office of Inspector General, "NASA's Management of the Human Landing System Contracts" (IG-26-004), Mar. 10, 2026 — https://oig.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/final-report-ig-26-004-nasas-management-of-the-human-landing-system-contracts.pdf ; Bloomberg Law — https://news.bloomberglaw.com/federal-contracting/spacexs-starship-moon-lander-likely-to-face-more-delays-report ; Universe Today — https://universetoday.com/articles/nasa-updates-artemis-program-adding-a-mission-and-delaying-lunar-landing ; CBS News — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-artemis-moon-program-overhaul
USA Today via Yahoo, on Isaacman's path to administrator, Dec. 2025 — https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/nasa-leader-know-isaacmans-long-131733929.html
Spaceflight Now, "Senate confirms Jared Isaacman as 15th NASA Administrator," Dec. 18, 2025 — https://spaceflightnow.com/2025/12/18/senate-confirms-jared-isaacman-as-15th-nasa-administrator/
Spaceflight Now, "Trump nominates Jared Isaacman to serve as next NASA administrator," Dec. 4, 2024 — https://spaceflightnow.com/2024/12/04/trump-nominates-jared-isaacman-to-serve-as-next-nasa-administrator/
Reuters factbox via AOL, "Tesla CEO Elon Musk dreams big but often delivers late" — https://www.aol.com/news/factbox-elon-musks-unfulfilled-tesla-204116016.html
California DMV, "DMV Finds Tesla Violated California State Law," Dec. 16, 2025 — https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/dmv-finds-tesla-violated-california-state-law/ ; "Tesla Takes Corrective Action to Avoid DMV Suspension" — https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/news-and-media/tesla-takes-corrective-action-to-avoid-dmv-suspension/
Electrek, "Tesla sues California DMV to reverse 'Full Self-Driving' false advertising ruling," Feb. 23, 2026 — https://electrek.co/2026/02/23/tesla-sues-california-dmv-reverse-fsd-false-advertising-ruling/
CNN via KEYT, on Boring Company canceled and postponed projects — https://keyt.com/?p=1313789
Planetizen, summarizing The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 2022 — https://www.planetizen.com/node/119988
Marianna Bacallao, NPR, "Musk's Boring Company begins Nashville tunnel, bypassing the city's approval" — https://www.npr.org/transcripts/nx-s1-5576498
NewsChannel 5 Investigates, Metro Council and the Music City Loop — https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/metro-council-says-the-boring-company-is-keeping-them-out-of-the-music-city-loo
Tennessee Lookout via States Newsroom, Oct. 27, 2026 — https://www.newsfromthestates.com/node/434808
Caroline Eggers, WPLN, "'There are serious risks of sinkholes'" — https://wpln.org/post/there-are-serious-risks-of-sinkholes-experts-remain-cautious-of-the-boring-companys-nashville-project/
WPLN, on USGS sinkhole research — https://wpln.org/?p=184041
Bloomberg, "Musk's Boring Tunnel in Nashville Has Mayor Hoping No One Dies," 2026 — https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-nashville-music-city-tunnel-boring-co/
AP via Manufacturing.net, "Court Says Tesla's SolarCity Acquisition Was Fair," June 2023 — https://www.mbtmag.com/industry-4-0/news/22864105/court-says-teslas-solarcity-acquisition-was-fair
Insurance Journal (Bloomberg), June 7, 2023 — https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2023/06/07/724344.htm