Mr. Musk, one of President Trump’s main advisers, has not outlined a plan to reverse falling sales at the electric car company of which he is chief executive.

It has been a little over seven years since SpaceX first test-launched its powerful Falcon Heavy rocket. The February 2018 launch also shot SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into space and the car is still out there in orbit.

When he acquired the car on a company scheme, Harris did not consider the politics of Tesla’s billionaire owner too closely. “Elon Musk just seemed like a really interesting person. Everything he was doing seemed really positive,” he says.