I am a bit bemused at the negative comments from several above who seem to view any venture by a billionaire entrepreneur as merely self-serving and wasteful.
   Yes, Musk stands to make a lot of money with his projects and yes, his ego is well documented............ but... there are thousands of Tesla vehicles bearing satisfied consumers happily ticking off non-polluting miles... and more to come. Tesla has developed a new type of rechargeable battery that, if it proves successful, could make putting up with Musk's ego a minor inconvenience.
   In the same way, they are developing a better way to put solar panels on buildings and designing underground transit systems. You don't do these projects overnight and not without setbacks and LOTS of money. NASA did choose Tesla over Boeing for this rocket, and LO! they have a cheaper way to send payloads AND now passengers to the ISS..... and land the 1st stage on a barge in the ocean for re-use!
   The argument that "we need to solve problems down here and 'clean up the planet' before committing billions to space" is a common one ... but who really believes that NOT going to space will actually get money diverted to all those other nice goals? It just don't work that way. As was said above, the space program over the last 50-60 years has resulted in more useful stuff than I can type here... including the GPS that a lot of you carry around in your pockets!

   The major problems confronting humans right now are... too MANY humans and political upheavals partially fueled *BY* too many humans. Maybe if an Elon Musk would figure out a gentle and fair method of population control, we could concentrate on stopping Trumps, Bolsonaros, Putins, Erdogans and Dutertes from making life miserable for so many.....maybe...

   I shake my head sadly at the simplistic way so many evaluate the complex problems of humans fouling their own nest. Making fun of idiots like flat-earthers is one thing, but when technology is actually working, it is silly to act as though a few billion constitutes waste.
   Here's just one article that I doubt anyone else here has seen..
https://www.teslarati.com/teslas-biggest-enemy-the-spread-of-misinformation-from-the-misinformed/
I found it by going here