Elon Musk introduces the "X" factor in the space quest with a bold vision and mixed track record

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Billionaire Elon Musk envisions a future where his society would see astronauts resuming launches from American soil, where people would colonize other celestial bodies and where a constellation of satellites would provide the Earth with broadband access to the Internet.

This future is coming, but maybe not as quickly as the founder of SpaceX promises. Musk has both a record of launches – having successfully launched more than 70 rockets and landed more than 35 rockets, flying several of them for a second or third time – and for having an overly optimistic timeline.

All this is part of the spice that Musk brings into space and his quest for man to become a multi-planet species.

"Some of Elon Musk's ideas are a little ambitious, we will say, but he makes people listen," said David Alexander, director of the Rice University Space Institute. "And if he had not had the necessary success, that would be another story to tell."

The adventure begins

The 17-year-old Musk space company started in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia. The employees of the young company did a little bit of everything. One of the workers was tasked with preparing the launching pad and assisting in the integration of the rocket, but he was also captain of the over 40-foot catamaran that was transporting employees to and from the island where the launches would have been carried out. place.

The first three launches – March 2006, March 2007 and August 2008 – have not reached the planned orbit. But in September 2008, a predecessor of the Falcon 9 rocket (named after the Millennium Falcon spacecraft in Star Wars) became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach Earth's orbit.

Development continued and was supported by NASA, which was looking for commercial rocket companies to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. Between 2006 and 2012, when SpaceX sent the first private spacecraft to the space station, NASA provided technical expertise and $ 396 million for the development of the Falcon rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon would have been named for the song "Puff the Magic Dragon" in response to critics' skepticism that Musk was high if he thought it could work.

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SpaceX contributed $ 454 million under the Orbital Commercial Transportation Services Agreement. Its first freight contract was worth $ 1.6 billion, according to a NASA report on the COTS program. SpaceX would later receive a second specific cargo contract. And we would trust a more delicate transport.

In September 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX a $ 2.6 billion contract to bring US astronauts to the International Space Station. The government has relied on Russia to transport its astronauts to and from the space station, at a cost of $ 82 million per seat, since the closure of the space shuttle program in 2011.

The launch of the astronauts is one of the most immediate future of SpaceX. On March 3, his spaceship Crew Dragon was developed to carry astronauts successfully moored to the space station, although there was no one on board during the tests.

Delays only part of the race

The first launch with astronauts was, more recently, planned for this year. But an "incident" during engine tests in April destroyed a spacecraft and could further delay the company. Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of SpaceX's insurance mission, said he hoped the company could still launch astronauts in 2019.

"Yes, there will be delays," said Scott Hubbard, an assistant professor at Stanford University's aeronautics and astronautics department and former director of NASA's Ames research center. "But I do not expect it to prevent this industry from developing."

Commercial companies such as SpaceX should take charge of their operations closer to Earth, allowing NASA to focus on the Moon, Mars and beyond. In addition to rocket launches, SpaceX is licensed to operate more than 11,000 satellites to provide broadband Internet access to the Earth.

But do not expect SpaceX to stay close to Earth. Musk unveiled his plans in 2016 to finally colonize Mars.

To achieve this, SpaceX launched the world's most powerful operational rocket in February 2018 – the Falcon Heavy, which also carried a cherry-red Tesla Roadster in space. He is currently developing an even more powerful spaceship and rocket combination, the Starship and the Super Heavy Rocket, which is set to surpass NASA's Saturn V rocket that once brought astronauts to the moon.

SpaceX is developing and testing a first prototype spacecraft on Boca Chica Beach, near Brownsville. The test vehicle passed several milestones, including its first captive jump in April, during which it slightly lifted off the ground.

Go on the moon

And while the Starship and Super Heavy Rocket are finally destined for Mars, the company's most immediate destination will be the moon. Musk announced in September that Japanese entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa would fly around the moon during a week-long trip in 2023. In addition, he will need six to eight artists to capture the beauty.

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"Humanity landing on the moon, man, is perhaps the biggest thing in history," Musk said at a press conference earlier this year, according to The Atlantic.

"I hope we will return to the moon soon," he said. "We should have a base on the moon, like a human base permanently occupied on the moon. And send people to Mars and build a city on Mars. That's what we should do. "

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