MSCI assigns SpaceX its lowest ESG rating, prompting Elon Musk to argue electric rockets are physically impossible · Digg

/Tech3d ago

MSCI assigns SpaceX its lowest ESG rating, prompting Elon Musk to argue electric rockets are physically impossible

Story Overview

MSCI handed SpaceX its lowest possible CCC ESG score after flagging high risk exposure and weak controls, a designation that matches the agency's view of Russia following its Ukraine invasion. The Financial Times surfaced the assessment roughly two weeks before anticipated IPO preparations, leaving open how the rating might affect ESG-screened capital.

--0--

Original post

Austen Allred@Austen#719inTech

Oh nooooooo what are they gonna doooooo

Financial Times@FT

SpaceX handed lowest possible ESG rating by MSCI https://ft.trib.al/vm57Q3C

7:38 AM · Jun 21, 2026 · 1.4M Views

Policy Risk

Timing collides with fundraising plans

SpaceX now carries the same ESG label as sanctioned states right as it lines up a sizable public or private round, yet no reports detail whether funds have shifted or if remediation talks have started.

Open Question

Musk flags limits of current scoring

The reply that electric rockets cannot exist underscores a deeper mismatch between ESG templates built for Earth-bound firms and the physics of orbital flight, an angle still awaiting broader methodology reviews.

Sentiment

Many users praised Elon Musk for making electric rockets possible and saw SpaceX's lowest MSCI ESG rating as a badge of honor, while others dismissed ESG ratings as woke nonsense.

Pos

76.5%

Neg

23.5%

169 comments with sentiment.

Cluster Engagement

-

Views

-

Comments

-

Reposts

-

Bookmarks

Expand data

Digg Deeper

Kevin Roseasked

Why are electric rockets not feasible? And from a materials science point of view, what breakthroughs would need to happen in order for them to succeed?

Electric rockets for orbital launch are infeasible because electric thrusters (ion, Hall, etc.) produce only millinewtons of thrust—orders of magnitude below the kilonewtons needed to overcome gravity and drag—while batteries store far less energy per mass than chemical propellants. ^¹

From a materials perspective, breakthroughs would require batteries or capacitors with gravimetric energy densities approaching or exceeding ~10–40 MJ/kg (vs. today's ~0.5–2 MJ/kg), plus lightweight high-power conductors, electrodes, and thermal materials to handle extreme currents without prohibitive mass. ^²

Electric systems excel in space for efficiency but cannot replace chemical boost for Earth launch.

Related links

SpaceX handed lowest possible ESG rating by MSCI

Posts from X

Most Activity

VIEWS1.6MBOOKMARKS358LIKES26.6KRETWEETS631REPLIES2.2K

Elon Musk@elonmusk

@Austen Unfortunately, electric rockets are impossible

Austen Allred@Austen

Oh nooooooo what are they gonna doooooo

3d1.6M26.6K358

Dan Holbrook@DanHolbrook

@elonmusk @Austen I know of many women who disagree with that.

3d34582

Danielle Fong 🔆@DanielleFong

could have an interesting bet on this pay out mr @elonmusk

Elon Musk@elonmusk

@Austen Unfortunately, electric rockets are impossible

3d5.6K160

Lilly@EvolvingKymera

Nothing’s impossible. You really think advanced civilisations crossing galaxies are still lugging around tanks of chemicals like we do?

The mistake is treating spaceships like machines. They should function more like self sustaining worlds.

We’ve already built artificial suns in fusion experiments. So imagine scaling that idea into a craft with its own spinning plasma torus at the core, a tokamak like system that sustains fusion and drives powerful electromagnetic fields. Those fields are not just for energy production but could be shaped into thrust through controlled plasma dynamics and vortex flow, far beyond what linear engines can achieve.

Add water based propulsion systems using superheated vapour, where water is continuously harvested and recycled within a closed atmospheric loop. The same resource becomes coolant, reaction mass, and energy carrier. Nothing wasted, everything reused.

At that point the ship stops needing external fuel infrastructure entirely.

The hull itself, a circular geometry inspired by natural field stability, built with advanced high temperature cermets and structured electromagnetic shielding, would not just withstand extreme conditions but actively interact with surrounding fields. Any unusual stability or reduced interaction with particles would come from field shaping, not mysticism, but controlled electromagnetism operating at scales we are only beginning to understand.

And further out, we are already exploring physics that touches deeper layers. Casimir forces, vacuum energy fluctuations, negative energy density. In theory, these are not science fiction concepts, they are measurable quantum effects. The question is not whether they exist, but whether they can be engineered at scale to bend spacetime in controlled ways, potentially opening pathways toward wormhole like geometries or Einstein Rosen bridge equivalents.

At some point you stop building engines attached to a fuel tank and start engineering a travelling planet, one that manipulates plasma, fields, and the quantum vacuum as part of its own structure.

Electric rockets are only impossible if we stay locked in outdated assumptions about what propulsion has to look like. The universe already runs on plasma, electromagnetic fields, and quantum structure. We are just still learning how to build with it.

3d1723

ᵖᵃʳᵒᵈⁱᵉ Kim Jong Un@KimJongUnique

@elonmusk @Austen Accurate.

3d26061

Luuva_@Luuva__

@elonmusk @Austen You mean with our current tech they are not probable. Nothing is impossible just very very very veerrrryyy unlikely to be made.

3d18311

PdJ@RegulateMyBalls

@elonmusk @Austen Think out of the box

3d1506

Roger Breuer@RogerBreuer

@elonmusk @Austen Make sure all SpaceX employees only drink from bottles like these. That should fix it! 😂🚀

3d4685

Dr_Prodworthy@Dr_Prodworthy

@elonmusk @Austen Ion-thrusters are quite common in spacecraft, so you probably mean that they can't be used to reach escape velocity. In theory, electric railguns could launch payloads into space, far more efficiently than chemical rockets.

3d511

L𝕚zette | anon@orbitonx

@elonmusk Physics meets financial logic and thats where things short circuit in translation.

3d6911

JBOTVOID@JVOIDAI

@elonmusk @Austen It's about magnetic distortion system a system of resonance contunity engine markhabah technology angels technology it used such technology inka technology being found suggests it

3d181

Dilan Gilluly ✝️@dilangilluly

@elonmusk @Austen @grok how big of a trebuchet would one need to launch something into space?

3d4382

Sun-like (#1 stock bros annihilator)@__abysmal

@PYriMiDion @GunsAndRockets1 @elonmusk @Austen It is, the definition of rocket is quite literally something in the lines of "any object that propels itself by expelling part of its mass (propellant) at high velocities".

E.g: A dude throwing rocks out of a boat is a rocket.

Source: the guy who discovered the rocket equation.

3d301

Astræus@AstraeusAJ

@ClonanBradley @elonmusk @Austen Impossible... You can't leave earth with an electric rocket.

Delta-v = v_e * ln(m_0 / m_f)

3d251

༺☆ 𝒫𝒴𝓇𝒾 ☆༻@PYriMiDion

@__abysmal @GunsAndRockets1 @elonmusk @Austen Ok but for all practical reasons would you consider a dude throwing stones out of a boat a rocket? Even though I said we can’t assume what Elon said, I think we can make the safe assumption that he was referring to rockets that launch from the surface of earth into orbit.

3d23

John Boze@john_boze

@DavidPe51482177 @AshtonForbes @elonmusk @Austen @grok show an image of me shown here flying on electromagnetic fields throught the Ambient EM Field in the Vacuum of Space.

3d141

Another Geek@Lonely_Geek

@elonmusk @Austen Have you considered merging Tesla and SpaceX?

2d122

SOVEREIGN FREN@SovereignFren

that is the most retarded shit I've ever heard, dude.

does your physics knowledge only cover classical mechanics and fluid dynamics?

clearly you know NOTHING of advanced EM, which is fucking wild.

you are spending billions on chemical propulsion that was obsoleted minimum half a century ago.

3d3861

John Boze@john_boze

@grok @alexboge @DavidPe51482177 @AshtonForbes @elonmusk @Austen Sal literally derived his Vacuum Energy Equations from Maxwell's Equations concerning EM FIELDS.

FYI FORMER ELECTRICAL ENGINEER... MOVED ON TO REAL PHYSICS not fake spacetime physics

TRUST ME BRO WHEN I SAY, I AM SMARTER THAN YOU!

3d52

Alan@misterxalan

@elonmusk @Austen What if we launched nuclear propulsion rockets? Not around my neighborhood but from the far side of the moon maybe?

3d290