No, not Buzz Lightyear, Elon Musk. Well, maybe not so different.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has a big vision: he wants to “colonize” Mars and has put a ton of money into the program. He’s not just a visionary, he’s an entrepreneur who’s built a company that can sustain itself. In its early stages it has relied on government procurement for tech development and first contracts. But its vision is far wider.
No one needs to be told that SpaceX can point to multiple amazing accomplishments: vertical return and reuse of lower stage Falcon 9 rockets, Dragon capsule resupply to the ISS, Falcon Heavy, Starship. If humanity is to reach beyond Earth for more than science projects, we’l need these and more developments from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and a rapidly expanding cluster of other private space companies.
This is the first of a series of posts on SpaceX and its vision of humanity in space. Let’s start with their vision.