> When it becomes possible to buy launch services from another vendor which are comparable (not necessarily cheaper, just comparable) without the baggage of the damage Elon has done, SpaceX will be in a tougher spot.
And I suspect that's doubly true for launch customers outside the US.
I hate to derail into the political, but that's already been done so I'll input an alternate viewpoint.
Most people I know in Canada, don't currently think poorly of Elon. Note the conditional, currently. They think poorly of Trump, and the entire republican party for talking about, and allowing Trump to talk about annexation. (For example, congress purposefully extending all of Trump's emergency executive orders for the rest of the year, when they'd normally need 90 days + review of congress)
However this isn't about US "team" politics, where even your news talks about "red states" and "blue states". This is simply about "Is this thing good or bad for Canada".
For example, while tariffs are seen as just plain dumb, they're not seen as hostile to Canada, just a shift in US policy. It's the speed of tariff change that's the biggest concern. Put another way, most of the world has no idea or cares for US "team" politics, and frankly we don't understand or even know what drives most US political discussion. It all seems like senseless drivel.
Now to be fair, I'm sure anyone peering in at any political argument from outside, ends up with this feeling. If you've even been visiting a friend, and their family gets into an argument, it's just embarrassing and often laden with decades of back-history, for which you have no context or understanding.
Couple that with the fact that Canada has multiple political parties, not just two, especially at the provincial level. This means we're more accustomed to people working with those they normally do not want to, in order to find a cooperative means to an end. You can see cases in the past where a minority government/party remains in power, by the support of a separatist party. Yes, sometimes people wanting to separate from the country, vote with you and work with you on key topics.
And this sort of logic is quite true for most European nations too.
So not only do those arguments the US seems to have with in its team dynamic seem super weird (only two often completely opposite viewpoints, with no compromise), we don't "get" all the historical chuff that comes along with those arguments.
So back to Elon. Was Canada upset at Elon? Yes just as Canada was, and is still upset at the entire US. But there's upset, and then there's upset. And from what I see here, that has faded against Musk.
After all, none of the US "team" arguments meant anything to Canada. We were extremely massively upset at Trump and those in Congress for not reigning him in about annexation. The rest?
Well that's internal US strife, which we don't even understand. For context, all the layoffs in your government via Musk seemed excessive, but the concept of trying to save money seemed good. Then there was all this undertone of "oh, but he's doing it for evil reasons", with reasons no foreigner could even understand without decades of thinking in terms of "team politics".
This is a bit of a blather, but I guess I'm trying to say that don't count on internal US team politics being the same viewpoint that other countries will have.
And most of this isn't a knock against the US. For example, as I've said above, does the average American understand what drives the dynamic between the Bloc Quebecois, their desire for Quebec independance, while also supporting Canada in parallel? Or the fact that we have a separatist party in our federal parliament? I assure you, no Wikipedia article or summary will get you even close to viewing this dynamic from a Canadian viewpoint.
And I suspect that's doubly true for launch customers outside the US.