SpaceX all in on X, ditching YouTube for its livestreams

SpaceX is seemingly all in on X as its media distribution tool. Over the weekend the commercial launch provider ended streaming its launches and Dragon operations on YouTube in favor of exclusive coverage on the social media platform also owned by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.

SpaceX livestreams moving off YouTube to X

Over the weekend the expected streams of SpaceX’s Starlink Group 6-12 and the splashdown of Crew-6, a crew rotation mission to the ISS through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, were removed from YouTube. SpaceX just finished its coverage of Crew-6’s undocking and departure of the ISS on both X and YouTube. The company also performed a livestream of its launch of in-house designed satellites for the Space Development Agency the day before, so seeing future streams removed was unexpected.

SpaceX has been increasing its production on X since Musk’s acquisition of the site. In July we saw the company provide multiple streams of different angles of a Starlink launch out of Vandenberg Space Force Base in California – hopefully we’ll see that return more often. We’ve also seen Starlink news moved to its own dedicated account, with short lived press releases to the media ended in favor of posts on the official account.

SpaceX has also begun ending its support of competing social media platforms. To my knowledge SpaceX has never had a Facebook page but has had Instagram, its last post was about the launch of Starlink Group 6-11 a week ago. The company’s Flickr page, a once great asset for the media has gone dark since a few days before SpaceX’s first Starship flight test in April. LinkedIn has only been use as a recruiting tool with extremely sporadic posts, and of course SpaceX never joined Instagram’s Threads.

All while its X account has been more active than ever. So come Sunday evening when SpaceX launched its latest Starlink satellites and Crew-6 splashed down off the coast of Florida, it was unsurprising to see the company move away from anything not owned by Musk.

However, SpaceX’s Crew-6 coverage did still make it to YouTube through another channel, NASA. All NASA missions are co-produced by the two meaning that it is also streamed through NASA TV, which streams to YouTube, Facebook, the agency’s website, and even your local cable provider. So if you don’t want to miss those important moments, NASA and usually other nation’s space agencies provide their own coverage on their channels even when launching on SpaceX.

Join our Discord Server: Join the community with forums and chatrooms about space!

Is the X the future home for all things SpaceX?

First off, I just want to say that this pains me to refer to Twitter as X so much in this post. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve exclusively referred to the site as the “social media site formally known as Twitter.” This has been because I find the rebranding to be extremely idiotic and was my way to fight back. It’s obviously not working but I will continue my crusade for the restoration of my once favorite website. Anyways…

Out of all of Musk’s ventures, SpaceX has the largest team of communication employees. While Tesla and X’s public affair teams have been axed, SpaceX regularly organizes press events and inform the media of changes to those schedules if delays come up.

Speaking of this, SpaceX did not respond to comment ahead of publishing this story.

So is X the place you have to go to get any news on SpaceX? Well, it kinda has been for a while now. Like Musk’s other companies, all the news comes through him and his tool has been Twitter/X for years.

So will Tesla follow suit? The automaker recently announced a refresh of its Model 3 over the weekend and shared images on Instagram. However, Tesla is a worldwide brand and SpaceX is primarily a US company. While X is a popular app here in the states, it loses popularity over in Europe and Asia. But if there was a Musk company wide change to social media policy, it must have come late Sunday due to Crew-6 streams. Only time will tell if this move, Musk’s Twitter purchase, or really anything he has done in recent months, will pay off.

But one thing we do know is if you want to know the latest about anything Musk, you’ll have to get it from the source.