24/7 Space News
ROCKET SCIENCE
After brief X outage, Musk says refocusing on businesses
After brief X outage, Musk says refocusing on businesses
By Asad HASHIM
Washington (AFP) May 24, 2025

Social media platform X was hit by a two-hour outage Saturday, prompting owner Elon Musk to say he needs to spend more time focusing on his companies.

His statement echoed comments earlier this month suggesting he would reduce his role in US President Donald Trump's administration.

The world's richest person has an extraordinarily full plate as owner/CEO of X, xAI (developer of the AI-powered chatbot Grok), electric-car maker Tesla and rocket builder SpaceX -- not to mention his recent polarizing efforts to help Trump slash the size of the US federal government.

As backlash to those cuts grew and Tesla share prices slipped, Musk began drawing away from the government role, confirming last week that he was down to one or two days a week at the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency."

Still, the man who contributed more than $235 million to Trump's election campaign remains a close advisor to the US president, attending an Oval Office meeting with the South African president on Wednesday.

After the X outage on Saturday, Musk suggested that he may have been away from his companies for too long.

"As evidenced by the X uptime issues this week, major operational improvements need to be made," he said.

"The failover redundancy should have worked, but did not."

X had largely returned to normal service by 11:00 am US Eastern time (1500 GMT) Saturday.

The SITE Intelligence Group reported that hacker-activist group DieNet had claimed responsibility for the outage.

DieNet, it said, had called the attack a "test" of its so-called Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) capabilities -- flooding the system with online traffic to make it inaccessible to legitimate users.

AFP was unable to independently verify DieNet's claim of responsibility, and X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the outage.

- 'Super focused' -

"Back to spending 24/7 at work and sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms," Musk posted on X.

"I must be super focused on X/xAI and Tesla (plus Starship launch next week), as we have critical technologies rolling out."

SpaceX announced Friday that it plans to attempt a new launch of its mega-rocket Starship next week. Still under development, Starship exploded in flight during two previous launches.

Starship is key to Musk's long-term plans to colonize Mars, and SpaceX has been betting on the launch of numerous Starship prototypes -- despite the explosive failures -- to quickly identify and address problems.

The South African-born billionaire has for weeks been signaling that he would reduce his political role to refocus on his businesses.

Early this month, Musk acknowledged that his ambitious effort to slash US federal spending did not fully reach its goals, despite tens of thousands of job cuts and drastic budget reductions.

This week, he said he would pull back from spending his fortune on politics, although he did not rule out backing future causes "if I see a reason."

Of his recent political donations, he said: "I did what needed to be done."

bdx-aha/nl

X

Tesla

Related Links
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
ROCKET SCIENCE
Akoustis Finalizes Asset Sale to SpaceX Subsidiary Tune Holdings
Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 19, 2025
Akoustis Technologies, a leading provider of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters, has completed the sale of most of its assets to Tune Holdings Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX). The sale, conducted as a going-concern transaction under Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The transaction, valued at approximately $30.2 million in cash along with the assumpti ... read more

ROCKET SCIENCE
Revolutionary Passive Systems Transform Plant Watering in Microgravity

At Houston event, NASA astronauts will discuss their recent space station missions

Space tourism's growth blurs the line between scientific and symbolic achievement

Hong Kong to open universities to more foreign students after US ban

ROCKET SCIENCE
SpaceX mega-rocket Starship 9 cleared for launch following earlier mission failures

After two setbacks, SpaceX could try to launch massive Starship next week

China's LandSpace Successfully Launches Six Satellites with Upgraded ZQ-2E Y2 Rocket

SES selects Helios kick stage from Impulse for direct-to-orbit satellite missions

ROCKET SCIENCE
Rocky road geology reveals billion year story inside Martian crater

Martian dust devil photobombs NASA Perseverance rover in milestone selfie

Is Terraforming Mars a Realistic Goal?

Streak Patterns on Mars Likely Formed by Dust Rather Than Water Flow

ROCKET SCIENCE
China Establishes UN-SPIDER Regional Support Office at Wuhan University

Tiangong returns largest sample set yet for biological and materials science research

Space is a place to found a community not a colony

China's Shenzhou-19 astronauts return to Earth

ROCKET SCIENCE
SpaceX deploys 23 Starlink satellites in first launch for new Falcon 9 booster

SpaceX sends up more Starlink satellites from California

China's Satellite Navigation Industry Reaches $79.9 Billion in 2024

Making Satellite-Based Real-Time Data Processing a Global Reality

ROCKET SCIENCE
Gold and precious metals traced to Earth's core in Hawaiian lava

Reusable debris collector promises leap forward in sustainable space cleanup

Advanced 3D Satellite Component Layout Optimization Method Developed by Beijing Researchers

Why Small Satellites Fail More Often Than Expected

ROCKET SCIENCE
Tracing ancient cyanobacteria reveals early origins of circadian clocks

How to Get Rid of Mosquitoes in Orlando?

A rare planet may orbit brown dwarf pair at right angles

Unveiling the secrets of planet formation in environments of high UV radiation

ROCKET SCIENCE
Jupiter Was Formerly Twice Its Current Size and Had a Much Stronger Magnetic Field

SwRI Gathers First Ultraviolet Data from NASA's Europa Clipper Mission

Webb Uncovers New Mysteries in Jupiter's Aurora

Juno reveals subsurface secrets of Jupiter and Io

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.