8 years is a *long* time for VC's to stay in a company.
Which either means they have strong commitment to a visionary leader (good for potential start-ups approaching them but their competitors reckon they are saps) or they are weasel faced late comers who got in when success was virtually assured, which is the kind of move that gets them plenty of respect from other VC's.
Time will tell if they get bought (It's an IPO. Who buys the shares determines who the new presumably *minor* stockholders will be).
BTW Boeing is *relatively* fair as a competitor, possibly because they still make stuff for a *commercial* market. In contrast LockMart are pure government con-tractors. their playing of NASA in the X33 programme reminded me of the restaurant owner in Goodfellas who feels he *has* to take on an organised crime family as his "partner."Their "remarkable" ability to win contests despite "mishaps" (like *loosing* 70 million dollars in the *evaluation* stage of the JSF project)
I wish Spacex every success on this but hope Elon retains *significant* control.