Moon Express Reviews

I would be very wary of any of the positive reviews on here. The negative ones are all representative of my experience at Moon Express and that of my coworkers on the engineering team. The entire company feels like smoke and mirrors, particularly the last few years. Lots of money spent on making mockups and then calling them "prototypes". This is very misleading and never clarified in their media coverage. Very little real hardware has been built, with the exception of a bipropellant engine prototype. This is not a company that is on the verge of sending a spacecraft to the moon, as they would have you believe. It is clear they are out of money, likely in large part due to losing a lawsuit they initiated vs a vendor they wrote a bad contract with, then refused to pay (Moon Express v. Intuitive Machines). This resulted in Moon Express owing Intuitive Machines $4.1MM in stock/cash. Pay is very bad. Often 40-50% less than market value (they claim they pay 20% less than market, this is demonstrably false). They lure people in with the promise of doing awesome stuff and then appeal to everyone that they must make sacrifices to achieve the goal of going to the moon and that stock makes up for that. General lack of management/structure that any successful company tends to have. Too many executives relative to the size of the company. Very little (and frequently obfuscated) communication from executives to engineering staff. No performance reviews during multiple years at the company. Very little functional management (technical leads were forced to manage individual contributors begrudgingly). Executive management would dictate aggressive schedules to engineering then not release funding to go purchase components/machine parts/etc, then be very concerned when deadlines were not met. It was ultimately revealed that this was due to funding, which is a valid reason, but be up front with engineering so that they aren't constantly being jerked up and down. When we did get approval to issue POs we would frequently delay payment to vendors for months past net 30 terms. Someone mentioned a roller coaster. This is very accurate. Lack of "skin in the game" for many executives. One executive who basically oversaw all day to day operations of the company, including personally approving all purchases for much of the early days of the company lived in Canada full time and only came into the office for at most a week a month and more often than not on average probably a week every two months. He was very unresponsive via phone/email and it was clear that when he was visiting the office it was generally before/after he was on his way to vacation in the states. Many more executives who had titles and were presumably collecting salaries but were rarely if ever in the office. CEO sells a good story to the media/investors but is generally perceived as very untrustworthy by employees. Many broken promises and general lack of respect for employees. Many of us suspect that C level management is not truly interested in going to the moon but mostly interested in living the lifestyle of executives running a company that is "going to the moon". The biggest con is that somehow Moon Express continues to get positive media coverage and continues to be in a position where they may be able to con the American taxpayer out of money via NASA contracts by selling a story that consists of slick mockups and graphic design but no real technical substance.

Moon Express responded to a negative review about "spending money on marketing/advertising" vs spending money on its employees. Their response was: “Aug 5, 2018 – Human Resources We would like to correct the misperception that appears central to your post. Moon Express does not spend any money on advertising. We communicate publicly mostly through social media. If the basis of your criticism is the amount of media coverage we receive, please understand that that's a function of the free press, and not related to any expenditures on our part. We are puzzled by these remarks, but we regret that you have negative feelings and would welcome a conversation with you to try to clear the air. Please feel free to reach out to us anytime.” I'll be more than happy to "clear the air" right here in my response. First it wasn't "central" to my post. It was merely a suggestion to management. My “central” negative-review commentary was on the fact that the company had an extremely difficult time making PAYROLL (facts I can back up with copies of bank statements of the actual day the direct deposits were made). “Lack-of-finances” was the only central point…in my negative review. I understand that you do not spend any money on media coverage. Reporters simply come to you. Fair statement. However, to "market" this amazing company you have to spend "money" on things to engage the public. These things do NOT come for FREE. * Full-size scale model of the MX-1E for show and tell. Purchased by a professional model-making company out of New York. Made out of fiberglass, wood, and other common materials in the model-making industry. Very life-like and real looking. Impressive...but expensive ($thousands$)! *Conferences that executive level management attended with VIPs from Washington where you had to come up with thousands of dollars for "sponsorships" for these receptions to these parties. Beautiful ICE SCULPTURES oh my! What is the going rate for elaborate ice sculptures these days? The POINT is…management of the company “funds” would be better spent if you took care of the engineering team and staff. Payroll was constantly delayed (MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT and should CAUTION all future employees to consider). Bonuses always delayed. If an employee had business expenses to be reimbursed, this was always delayed. We have become second NOT first to the company. A company should always treat their employees as Number 1. Apparently that got lost along the way and it is sad to see the demise of such an inspiring company beloved by many throughout the world because of mismanagement of company finances. I truly hope Moon Express can bounce back from this and entice the right investors. Obviously an influx in funds is badly needed but perhaps a more critical role by the Board to oversee how the CEO and VPs are treating each and every employee. It is shameful to say the least!