April 20, 2009
Another big moment for Elon Musk
Why is this man laughing? (Photo: JD Lasica/Socialmedia.biz)
At 37 years old, Elon Musk is poised to become either the Henry Ford or the Howard Hughes of his generation. If his Falcon rockets and Tesla electric cars succeed, he’ll revolutionize 21st century transportation. If they don’t, he’ll likely be remembered as a colorful, clever, but ultimately irrelevant tinkerer. After all, Neil Young has an electric car, too.
Yesterday was to have marked the start of a new, commercial phase for Musk’s company, SpaceX. So far, nearly all the payloads entrusted to the fledgling Falcon 1 rocket have belonged either to the U.S. Defense Department or NASA, both of whom have a stake in seeing Musk achieve his goal of bringing down launch costs. If the government lost a few inexpensive satellites in the Falcon’s first three failed test flights, what matter? Helping SpaceX build a reliable rocket is considered more important.
But yesterday’s planned launch of a Malaysian satellite—which has been postponed while SpaceX looks into an unspecified “potential compatibility issue” between the spacecraft and the rocket—is for a different kind of customer. RazakSAT, Malaysia’s first Earth observation satellite, cost $41 million to develop, several times what the launcher cost. That’s a lot for a developing country hoping to enter a new high-tech arena, and SpaceX was right to back off from yesterday’s launch and triple-check that everything’s working properly.
Lately it’s been mostly good news for Musk’s six-year-old company. Argentina just signed on to launch two Earth observation satellites on the larger—and still untried—Falcon 9 rocket, which is set to debut from Cape Canaveral later this year. Dwarfing these kinds of commercial contracts is the whopping $1.6 billion that NASA agreed in December to pay for 12 future supply flights to the space station, beginning next year. Most of the payloads NASA packs onboard the Falcon 9 will still have low value—food, water, spare parts and the like. Not unique, expensive satellites. Those go on proven Deltas and Atlases.
But SpaceX’s fortunes ride on how well the Falcon 9 performs. It’s a lot of pressure on Musk, who recently has seemed more Hughes than Ford, at least in his private life: divorce, relationships with starlets, spats with reporters, all of which have landed him in the tabloids more than he’d probably like. Maybe it’s a relief to turn back to the relatively tame world of rocket science, and figure out how to get RazakSAT safely off the ground.
Elon has done things that are so important to our generation,first he is inspirational,he has “privatized” space travel which to me is amazing as a avid space buff, we may actually be able to go into space without being a military astronaut,or a billionaire,he has the Tesla car which from what i have read and seen is amazing and breakthrough in its design.Thank GOD for people like Elon,like Ford;Hughes,Tucker,Rutan,and dare i say Tesla he is a pioneer,for me there is love and a passion of these archetypes that makes us all imagine things we may not have.GOD Speed ELON!!!!!
Comment by spacelover — May 1, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
Whoever can create a cheap way to get into space, and then move things to and fro in outer space WILL be the worlds first Trillionaire.
There is an inconceivable amount of money to be made in space for those with the dream and the determination to pursue it.
Heck, he already has a great payment system he could use as well!
Comment by Tyler — May 7, 2009 @ 11:13 am
The RazakSat launch is back on:
http://www.spacex.com/launch_updates.php
Also, a minor correction: Only the third flight was carrying a payload for the govt and was a failure. The first two were demo and test flights that did not have live payloads and were not expected to reach orbit (Although it would have been very cool if they did).
Comment by W Barnes — June 7, 2009 @ 10:56 pm
Yes,the third launch didnt reach full apogee,BUT number 4 was one for the record books!! Every time i watch that video of 4th launch it give’s me goosebumps,especially when they have a clean separation for the second stage!!
Lets all remember the learning curve,growing pains if you will that Nasa had in her early years, except Elon is doing this with all private funding.kudos to him for that.imagine if he had even half of nasa’s budget.
This is, in my view,one of the most important Company’s and again in my view,the most important People we have here doing private Business. We all need to get behind and support Elon.Actually if you count Tesla motors, id say most important company’s (plural).
As an avid aviation and space buff,my Dreams for Spacex are out of this world.(no pun intended)
Hopefully someday ill work there,im working feverishly to get all certifications and degree’s required by Spacex.
We all have dreams!! this has been mine since i can remember.
With hard work and i think all dreams are possible.
Especially in my case with Elon charging forward in this path!!!
Again….. GODS SPEED ELON!!!!!
Comment by spacelover — June 30, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
[...] technical and financial risks inherent in the rocket business, and the difficult road ahead. Still, Elon Musk and crew must be feeling pretty good right [...]
Pingback by SpaceX joins the big leagues | The Daily Planet — July 14, 2009 @ 11:25 am
I love the free enterprise system and those who use it to do good! Way to go Elon!
Comment by Brandon Williams — June 28, 2010 @ 6:42 pm