SpaceX: American Spaceflight Goes Social

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American Spaceflight Goes Social Social Media Analysis of SpaceX Demo-2 Launch

Jessica Espada College of Journalism and Communications, University of Florida MMC5636: Introduction to Social Media Professor Kristin Blitch June 20, 2021

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In this paper, I examine the social media presence of SpaceX for the launch of its Demo-2 mission. I will discuss the earliest mentions from SpaceX on each platform and continue forward to include the date of the actual launch, May 30, 2020. Though there were many mentions after the launch date, including the successful return of the two astronauts on August 2, 2020, my research presented here will not go beyond June 1, 2020.

SpaceX maintains social presence on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, and LinkedIn. I examine all of them, give content examples and attempt to measure engagement. I chose the Demo-2 launch because it ushered in a new era of American Spaceflight. Specifically, using American craft, with American astronauts and launching from American shores. This had not been done since 2011 when NASA launched its final mission of the Space Shuttle program. SpaceX’s launch of Demo-2 would end reliance on foreign nations to get our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and back.

Keywords: SpaceX, Demo-2, spaceflight, #launchamerica, NASA, astronauts, launch, social media, engagement, best practices

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Introduction SpaceX. The name may as well mean “space exciting” instead of space exploration. SpaceX has done exactly that on its social media, bring excitement to its followers and fans. To SpaceX, excitement is baked in as a company value.

“I think fundamentally the future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we're a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanet species than if we're not. You want to be inspired by things. You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great. And that's what being a spacefaring civilization is all about” (Musk, 2017).

SpaceX launched the Demo-2 mission on May 30, 2020 at 3:22 PM EDT. It marked the American return to spaceflight, from American soil, using American rockets. SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has been engineering, building, testing (and crashing) spacecraft since then. The Demo-2 mission was special because it was the “third and final test” which, if successful would allow SpaceX to proceed with manned missions to the ISS and beyond (Ritm, 2020).

Demo-2 also marked the return of wholly American launches. In 2011, the NASA Space Shuttle program launched its final mission. Aboard that final Space Shuttle mission was astronaut Doug Hurley.

Aboard the Demo-2 mission, who else but Doug Hurley. He was last American to fly from US soil to the ISS and the first American to resume US-based launches.

Human spaceflight was an ambitious and multi-stage goal SpaceX and was ever-present from the company’s founding in 2002. Therefore, it is difficult to point to the beginning of the campaign to specifically promote the Demo-2 mission. SpaceX has anticipated this mission for many years, but because of the complexities involved in getting a rocket to and from space, SpaceX could only plan so far into its future. Planning would always rely on its successes and failures, and the laws of physics.

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SpaceX has social media presence on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, and LinkedIn. While it did post about the Demo-2 mission on all of these platforms, Twitter and Instagram drove the most interest about the mission. Though posts mentioned the significance of Demo-2, it felt random and didn’t use essential best practices on platforms. To an outsider, the information appears as a continuation of indistinct rocket launches and parachute tests, cool but it fails to tell the SpaceX story.

Posts about Demo-2 didn’t reveal enough information to draw people into its communities or to tell the mission’s story. For example, the nomenclature of the missions and rockets was information for which I had to dig and use other sources to understand how the rockets and missions are named. The milestones and their significance were information I found in other sources and documentaries. There is a lot of additional media coverage of SpaceX and, because of its contract and partnership with them, NASA drives some of the social media (and media) attention because NASA also promotes the missions.

This is no excuse for SpaceX to allow other media companies to control its narrative.

I predict there will be a day when spacecraft launches will be a non-event. If Elon Musk gets his way, this day will come sooner rather than later. This is why building its social media presence by following best practices and executing careful planning of content and analysis will propel SpaceX into the future it desires.

Campaign SpaceX maintains social media presence on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, and LinkedIn. Goals of the campaign to promote the Demo-2 mission were to create general awareness and public interest, provide investor updates and drive investor interest, promote the SpaceX brand, use as recruiting tool for talent, and offer a gesture of goodwill, especially in a dark time. I found promotion of the Demo-2 mission on all of its social media platforms. I detail the type of content and degree of promotion and engagement on each platform below.

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Twitter: @spacex Joined in January 2009, 17.2m followers, following 100 Target Audience: Investors, business executives, big shots in the US Government to small-time enthusiasts, anyone interested in space, technology, telecommunication and related industries. This is the platform SpaceX should use to impress and get the attention of the business world and governments.

Duration of Campaign: March 18, 2020, to May 30, 2020.

Key Posts: Because SpaceX Twitter does not use hashtags or consistent terminology, it was difficult to locate the beginning of this campaign, let alone the first mention of the Demo-2 mission. After extensive searches, I found that March 18, 2020 was the first mention of Demo-2, though it was not obvious, as you will see in the post below. In addition to announcing the timeline for Demo-2, March 18, 2020 was an especially busy day on the SpaceX Twitter account. SpaceX celebrated the launch of 60 satellites into orbit as part of its Starlink satellite program with six posts offering glimpses and updates on the mission as it progressed. It was not surprising that the Demo-2 announcement received less than 1% of its followers’ likes as it had to compete against those six other tweets that day, all of which were announcing the success of the Starlink satellite deployment. The tweet with the best response and engagement on March 18, 2020 showed the video of successful deployment, with 26.1k likes, 3.9k retweets, and 668 comments. The 15 second video also had 1.3m views. For Twitter followers in telecommunications (and other industries), this success was important news.

In the month of May 2020, the month of the Demo-2 launch, most Twitter posts were about the Demo-2 or subsequent mission (Crew-1). There were also updates on its ongoing Starlink launches of satellites. The May the Fourth post was the best performing, non-mission-based post and its only use of

AMERICAN SPACEFLIGHT GOES SOCIAL a hashtag. It got 112.9k likes and was the most popular tweet except for the Demo-2 liftoff on May 30, 2020.

i: Obligatory Star Wars reference tweet on May 4, 2020.

ii- Best performing Tweet on March 18, 2020 competed against Demo-2.

iii: March 18, 2020 tweet announcing Demo-2 mission timeline.

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iv: May 1, 2020 update on parachute performance for Demo-2.

v: Building excitement for May 27, 2020 launch of Demo-2.

On May 30, 2020 SpaceX posted 23 updates to the Demo-2 mission. Of those 23 posts, the “Liftoff!” post performed best with 832.1k likes, 220.8k retweets, and 33.3k quote tweets. Nearly 5% of its followers engaged in some way with this post. This 12-second video garnered 21.8m views; it was likely watched multiple times by followers and non-followers alike.

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vi: Top tweet on May 30, 2020 of Demo-2 mission.

SpaceX could have better executed its campaign to promote Demo-2 by educating its followers, using terms consistently, using hashtags and replying to comments.

YouTube: SpaceX Joined July 30, 2008, 5.79m subscribers.

Target Audience: Space enthusiasts, investors, competitors, educators, educated adults, professionals in technology and engineering industries, any age demographic.

Duration of Campaign: March 2, 2019, to May 30, 2020.

It’s important to note that YouTube is a repository site for SpaceX video content, versus a platform from which it actively campaigns. This seems strategic and allows the website to achieve its sophisticated aesthetic and concentrate website real estate on its latest missions and selling spaceflight and satellite services.

On March 2, 2019, SpaceX livestreamed the launch of Demo-1. “SpaceX launched Crew Dragon’s first demonstration mission from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The intent of this test flight without crew on board the spacecraft was to demonstrate SpaceX’s

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capabilities to safely and reliably fly astronauts to and from the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program” (SpaceX, 2019). After the success of this launch, SpaceX was able to move onto its next phase of launching human occupied craft into orbit. This is when the campaign was able to shift its focus to the Demo-2 mission.

vii: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZL0tbOZYhE&t=2443s

The “Crew Demo-2” launch placed seventh among the most popular videos with 9.8m views.

This was a livestream nearly six hours in length. Engagement this high for a video of this length is a testament to the excitement subscribers and others have for SpaceX. This video livestreamed on May 27, 2020 but had more than 6.6k dislikes. The launch was “scrubbed” because of weather and that was not popular, though it did drive engagement. Some comments capturing that disappointment are below.

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On June 1, 2020 the video of the Demo-2 launch was posted to its YouTube channel. It got 1.04m views, 23k likes, 439 dislikes. The successful launch on May 30, 2020 was livestreamed via the NASA YouTube channel (9.26m subscribers) and had 19.017m views.

Another notable video on YouTube was “How not to land an orbital rocket booster” (2:08 in length) and is second highest with 26m views and 744 likes. This video aptly shows that SpaceX has a sense of humor about its work and at the end of the day, everyone is having fun. A notable song was paired with the video clips, The Liberty Bell, by John Philips Souza, which was used by Monty Python for its Flying Circus show. (See that choice video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ) Again, YouTube is not a platform from which SpaceX actively promotes its missions. It is a site for people to find information and watch launches after the fact. That said, SpaceX still racks up the views by providing free and easy access to exciting content. I advise SpaceX use hashtags and categorize its YouTube content. Hashtag ideas for its top three videos: (1) #falconheavy, (2) #orbitalrocketbooster, #hownottoland, and (3) #starman.

Instagram: spacex 9.9m followers, following 3 Target Audience: Space and tech enthusiasts, under age 50.

Duration of Campaign: August 29, 2019, to May 30, 2020.

Similar to Twitter, it was difficult to find a beginning point to the promotion of Demo-2 on Instagram. SpaceX’s Instagram account also fails to use hashtags which would make finding information on its various missions much easier. Though I must suggest that SpaceX also begin to reply to comments from followers, I was surprised by how many whack-jobs were commenting absurdly on SpaceX posts.

Maybe if SpaceX actually did create conversations on Instagram, this outlandishness would decrease.

Below I provide a chart showing likes and views on Instagram posts. Unsurprisingly, videos performed better than still shots. SpaceX posted about the Demo-2 mission 32 times, eight of which

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were posted on scheduled launch days (May 27 and May 30). Overall, SpaceX under-utilized Instagram to promote Demo-2. The engagement numbers on the videos suggest interest from followers and SpaceX would grow its numbers if it used best practices and better content planning.

viii: First mention of the Demo-2 mission.

ix: Shows the continuation of its mission to transport humans and mentions Demo-2’s significance in the ability to advance to Crew-1.

x: Most views, video of successful launch of Demo-2.

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Instagram Likes & Views 3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 500,000

8/29/19 9/12/19 10/24/19 10/29/19 11/3/19 12/4/19 12/23/19 1/17/20 1/17/20 1/19/20 2/11/20 2/12/20 2/14/20 2/16/20 4/8/20 5/1/20 5/1/20 5/20/20 5/21/20 5/22/20 5/24/20 5/25/20 5/26/20 5/27/20 5/27/20 5/30/20 5/30/20 5/30/20 5/30/20 5/30/20 5/30/20 5/30/20

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

xi: Mentions of Demo-2 in posts from Aug 29, 2019, to May 30, 2020.

Flickr: Official SpaceX Photos 55.4k followers, Joined February 2015, 1035 photos Target Audience: Photography and space enthusiasts, members of the press.

Duration of Campaign: May 16 to May 30, 2020 SpaceX uses Flickr as a place to make its official photos freely accessible to the public. It released photos under a Creative Commons license in 2015, not coincidentally the same time when it created a Flickr account. Robinson Meyer from The Atlantic said this about a month after SpaceX released its photos.

It makes sense for photos from space to be made available for public use. ... Besides, contractors like SpaceX do not structure their business around copyright permissions: They structure them around getting paid to send people and things to space. Opening

AMERICAN SPACEFLIGHT GOES SOCIAL up the rights around their photos could allow the photos to be distributed widely, inspiring and educating as many people as possible, while costing SpaceX little.

Similar to YouTube, Flickr is a repository for photographic content, not a platform from which it actively campaigned for the Demo-2 mission. SpaceX posted 24 photos of the Demo-2 mission and labeled each of them as “Crew Demo-2.” This allows the media and fans to find images easily because they are organized by missions.

Despite Flickr being a niche site and a repository for SpaceX, its photos have gotten many views. This picture on May 21, 2020, got more than 160k views. Flickr also curated it to a collection called Explore for May 23, 2020 which likely directed many views to its photostream.

SpaceX’s use of Flickr is appropriate and demonstrates goodwill toward the press and its fans.

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xii: My personal favorite image on Flickr of Demo-2.

LinkedIn: SpaceX 2,065,961 followers Target Audience: Educated engineering and technology professionals, other professionals, and potential applicants.

Duration of Campaign: 2018 to May 30, 2020 SpaceX’s LinkedIn content was the most unique and differentiated from all its other social platforms. It is used as a recruiting tool for SpaceX, and its content is applicant and employee centric.

SpaceX LinkedIn posts talk about the company’s accomplishments not only in space, but also in the business world, winning best places to work awards and offering a chance to get to know Gwynne Shotwell, its President and COO. There is an emphasis on teamwork and its many successes and so the attraction of working for a successful and purpose-driven company is palpable. Posts have included recruiting events, specific job postings, resume tips, internship opportunities and community events.

LinkedIn provides the most humanistic view of SpaceX. SpaceX is one of those luminary companies that young geeks dream of working for one day (and I mean this in the best way including myself among that crowd). SpaceX conveys its own enthusiasm for

AMERICAN SPACEFLIGHT GOES SOCIAL its missions and validates that dream as if to say, “Yes! We are a great place to work!” SpaceX has its choice when selecting talent, but it is smart to keep the pipeline stocked with fresh, interested talent.

xiii: First allusion to Demo-2 mission, posted in 2018.

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xiv: Post with highest number of likes and comments.

xv: A post referring people to its Reddit site run by the software developers and inviting followers to a Q&A session.

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On the above post from December 4, 2020, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President and COO asks questions submitted by employees to astronauts at ISS. A 20-minute Q&A session posted on the NASA Video YouTube channel, this gives great feels for prospective employees of the teamwork and ultimate mission at SpaceX.

Results The launch of the Demo-2 mission garnered multiple millions of views all over the world, whether live or recorded. Based on that alone, I conclude that SpaceX’s campaign for Demo-2 was successful, even if it was haphazard.

What SpaceX failed to do for this launch (and continues to neglect) is use basic best practices on social media platforms. The absence of hashtags is its most glaring failure regarding social media. For the Demo-2 launch, NASA created #launchamerica as the hashtag to encompass all social media around the

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event. SpaceX did not use it. I speculate the engagement numbers would’ve been much higher had SpaceX been more intentional and community oriented on its social platforms.

The platforms that received the most engagement were Instagram and YouTube. Video drives engagement and the Instagram results validated this. My graph above charts the marked difference in engagement if a post included stills versus a post that included video. SpaceX is hosting its videos from Instagram rather than embedding and redirecting to its YouTube platform. It should continue this to drive engagement in its Instagram community.

Best practices of social platforms are to be used for important reasons. Using these best practices, especially hashtags and replies to comments, show followers that the brand is participating with the community. It demonstrates a corporate commitment to having conversations and building communities. SpaceX inadvertently conveys an inaccessibility to its fans because it doesn’t converse with fans or encourage communities. The ability to participate in this very exciting brand feels closed to outsiders. That’s not a community, that’s a clique. SpaceX’s failure to reply to comments stunts the growth of its enthusiastic followers.

Discussion Ultimately the Demo-2 campaign was successful. Based on the nature and significance of the event, the lack of competition for SpaceX, and the effects of the pandemic on people, the Demo-2 launch could not have come at a better time. The campaign’s success was driven by the good fortune of the above factors, and the social media staff at SpaceX might even think they did everything right. While they did some great things, like post amazing visuals and engaging videos, I also want to acknowledge the reality of the time. I cannot account for what employees at SpaceX may have been up against regarding an inability to coordinate or plan content because of pandemic working conditions. SpaceX successfully relays its enthusiasm for its work and missions. That comes through on every social media

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platform and carries the brand forward with a momentum that others work very hard to achieve. And yet, SpaceX could have done better.

Its failure to use hashtags and consistently refer to its craft and missions on social media hurts its audience’s understanding, awareness, and ultimately its support. Nowhere did I find #demo2mission or #crewdragon or #falcon9 or even #spacex. One of its drone ship platforms is called “Of Course I Still Love You.” This should be a hashtag (#ofcourseistillloveyou) so fans can see all the posts involving this drone ship platform, which has some of the coolest video content associated with it. Hashtags are an opportunity it continues to miss. SpaceX’s failure to engage the most basic tools on social platforms for the benefit of its fans, followers, investors, employees, the press, and other stakeholders must change immediately. It takes a little bit of the shine off such a prestigious company.

Conclusion An important lesson from this research is the power of a big brand like SpaceX. This brand power can be deceiving and take a company to a complacency that undoes some of its great successes.

Brands, whether major players or not, must mind their social media. Social media is where its fans, customers, employees and other stakeholders all gather to co-create and further their brand experiences. If a company is not present in that space, with the people, the absence will begin to negatively affect its reputation. SpaceX is still benefitting from its brand power, but soon this energy will falter, or worse, be overshadowed by a (likely) crisis. For the sake of its future, SpaceX must align its corporate values and business goals more intentionally with its social media goals.

SpaceX is a brand heavyweight with a massive advantage because of its leadership and lack of competition. May 2020 was a rough time for Americans, and all people really, because of the pandemic and resulting lockdowns, confusion, worry and political posturing. The world was despairing, and this launch provided hope for everyone, especially Americans. (It also provided plenty of jokes about the

AMERICAN SPACEFLIGHT GOES SOCIAL astronauts taking social distancing to the next level.) SpaceX’s campaign for the launch of Demo-2 benefited from its brand and the time in which it happened. An extraordinary number of Americans were at home that day at 3:22 PM ET and could watch live as Dragon roared toward the heavens. The launch served as a beacon that turned the eyes of weary people upward. American spaceflight had returned to American shores, and for a bit, we all rooted for the mission, the astronauts, and SpaceX.

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21 References

Blitch, K. (2021, June 7). Week 5 lecture: Best practices on platforms [Live Lecture]. Introduction to Social Media, University of Florida.

Meyer, R. (2015, March 19). Celestial Commons: SpaceX makes its photos easier for everyone to use.

The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/03/spacex-releases-its-photosunder-creative-commons/388200/

Musk, E. (2017, September). Elon Musk’s best quotes on SpaceX and Mars. Elon Musk News. https://elonmusknews.org/blog/elon-musk-spacex-mars-quotes

Ritm1. [ritm1]. (2020, October 28). The rise of SpaceX Elon Musk’s engineering masterpiece [Video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_T4QayqtI4

SpaceX. [spacex]. (2019, March 2). Crew Demo-1 launch [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZL0tbOZYhE&t=3008s

SpaceX Twitter [@spacex]. https://twitter.com/SpaceX SpaceX Instagram, [spacex]. https://www.instagram.com/spacex/ SpaceX YouTube, [spacex]. https://www.youtube.com/spacex SpaceX Flickr, [official spacex photos]. https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/ SpaceX LinkedIn, [spacex]. https://www.linkedin.com/company/spacex/ SpaceX. (n.d.). SpaceX. https://www.spacex.com/