Harriet Brewis
Jan 16, 2023
content.jwplatform.com
Elon Musk may not, in the eyes of many, be steering Twitter in the right direction but no one can deny that SpaceX seems to be on course to realising its ultimate goal.
The on-off world’s richest person has boasted that his rocket company will soon take humans to Mars and even colonise the red planet. Watching the seamlessly smooth operation of its latest mission, his dream is becoming increasingly credible.
SpaceX launched its fifth Falcon Heavy mission on Sunday, with the massive commercial rocket soaring from the Kennedy Space centre.
Three minutes after liftoff, the craft’s side boosters successfully separated and touched down gracefully on the company’s two Florida landing pads.
Musk seized the opportunity to boast that this was a vision of the future some 140 million miles away.
Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
“And that’s how we will land on Mars,” he wrote proudly, with his tweet racking up 7.5 million views and 85,500 likes in just 6 hours.
\u201cAnd that\u2019s how we will land on Mars\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1673832035
Speaking to Timemagazine back in 2021, the Tesla founder said he hoped his rockets would carry 100 people at a time to the red planet, where the ships could then be refuelled and shuttled back to Earth.
Asked when he thought this could happen, he replied: “I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years.”
There’s no doubt space flight and planetary colonisation – rather than electric cars or free speech – is his true burning passion.
He told Time that his overall goal with SpaceX is to “make life multi-planetary and enable humanity to become a spacefaring civilization."
“The next really big thing is to build a self-sustaining city on Mars and bring the animals and creatures of Earth there, sort of like a futuristic Noah’s ark,” he added in his 'Person of the Year' interview.
“We’ll bring more than two, though—it’s a little weird if there’s only two.”
Anyone would think Musk is likening himself to God here. But that doesn't sound like something he'd do...
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
Top 100
The Conversation (0)