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Musk: NASA hails SpaceX launch as 'a new era' for spaceflight


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Posted

It will definitely be more efficient and cost-effective!  This guy doesn't know how to quit, and it's probably just the beginning of what he may end up doing...another crazy entrepreneur who will change the world...although I don't know how profitable his ventures will be.  Cheers!

Posted

Not sure if its the answer. The russian soyouz technology is based on 50  years of  space technology and research. I rather go with the russians than musk. Though musk is clearly a smart guy.

Posted

Not sure if its the answer. The russian soyouz technology is based on 50  years of  space technology and research. I rather go with the russians than musk. Though musk is clearly a smart guy.

 

The thing is, soon SpaceX will do launches for significantly less money than anyone else, and they'll prove the safety of their design over time (it was impressive they could shut down the rocket without damage half a second befre launch last week... A lot of other designs would either have been damaged or would have needed to be self destructed --- solid fuel rockets can't be stopped once lit).

Posted

Good overview:

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304840904577426042171703270.html

 

That guy really doesn't quit:

 

Mr. Musk, who is 40 years old, used $100 million of his personal fortune to start SpaceX in 2002 but within six years the fledgling enterprise was tottering. The company's first three rocket launches, which Mr. Musk had promoted as less expensive than the competition, all failed in very public ways. At the same time, the government had relegated him to operating from an isolated U.S. missile-test range in the Pacific. Using Kwajalein atoll as a base hugely increased SpaceX's logistics costs and complicated every aspect of launch preparations.

 

By the fall 2008, Mr. Musk was reeling under additional pressure because his marriage had fallen apart, and he was facing a potentially drawn-out and acrimonious divorce. Tesla Motors, in which Mr. Musk had a controlling stake, was buffeted by financial problems and sucking up more of his time.

 

By that time, SpaceX was hemorrhaging money and its distraught founder felt increasingly hemmed in. "It was pretty tough slogging" from 2007 to 2009, Mr. Musk recalled in a 2010 interview, calling the period "the worst two years of my life."

 

Chastened by the hostility and sometimes ridicule of many industry and government officials, Mr. Musk later acknowledged he contemplated abandoning the company.

 

Meanwhile, the day-to-day difficulties of soothing skeptical customers and creating a space company from scratch didn't abate. In the 2010 interview, he referred to living through some "heart-wrenching episodes."

 

The fog began to lift in September 2008, when SpaceX's Falcon1 rocket successfully placed a dummy payload into orbit and Mr. Musk was able to snare additional customers. Revenue from SpaceX's work for NASA also began to pick up.

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