Welcome to Axis ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

Sponsored by Bridge Bank. Be bold. Venture wisely. I'm Dan Permac. On today's show, Elon Musk buys back into Tesla, and vaping giant Jew jewel has some new, familiar competition.

But first, the space coast comeback.

Eight years ago, Atlantis launched on what was to be America's final space shuttle mission.

President Obama said at the time that it was the end of one era of space exploration,

but the beginning of another, one more focused on deep space than on near orbit.

But for thousands of

NASA and shuttle contract workers, it was also viewed as the loss of their employment. And for

an area of East Central Florida known as the space coast, it was devastating, particularly

given that it came at the same time as America's Great Recession and subsequent cuts to NASA

funding. What no one knew at the time, however, was that

this area of the Atlantic Coast would effectively be saved by the arrival of Pacific Coast

billionaires, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Private space launches have become a frequent

occurrence now, and all sorts of traditional aerospace companies have also opened local

facilities to play in the resurgent space scene.

Florida still receives less than 2% of all venture capital dollars invested in U.S. startups, but a lot of that money is being indirectly invested in the space coast, thus giving

an economic boost that wasn't even imagined when Atlantis took its final flight.

The big question now is if these private efforts will continue to go it alone, particularly

on things like President Trump's stated desire to return Americans to the moon, or if NASA itself

could get back in the good graces of congressional budget makers. In 20 seconds, we'll go deeper,

with Axios managing editor Kim Hart, who just got back from Cape Canaveral. But first,

this. The Equity Fund Resources Group at Bridgebank is a central

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