Founded in 2002, the founder is the controversial Silicon Valley Iron Man - Elon Musk. After the first three failures, in 2008, the Falcon One rocket developed by SpaceX was successfully launched, creating the history of civil rockets.
Who would have thought that Musk, who was ridiculed by everyone at the beginning, could really make his space dream a reality today? Touch quality, discover the future, please watch "SpaceX: My Journey is the Stars and the Sea" of 100,000 brand stories today
At 3:45 p.m. on February 6, 2018, the Falcon Heavy rocket manufactured by space X in the United States was successfully launched and successfully recovered after completing the mission, which shocked space enthusiasts around the world. It is much cheaper than the rockets of the same type, but the performance is completely crushed.
Forty-seven years ago, humans first drove a lunar rover on the moon. Forty-seven years later, "Starman" drove Elon Musk's Tesla red sports car, accompanied by David Bowie's classic song "Space Freak" into space.
The person who has achieved such success in the two completely different fields of electric vehicles and private rockets is Elon Musk, who is the CEO of both companies. Before that, only Jobs had achieved such impressive results, such as a new Apple product and a Pixar movie.
Huge advances have been made in space exploration, automotive, and clean energy, which makes it feel as if everything musk has done in an instant. Just a few years ago, Musk left the impression of a highly controversial figure known for his crazy dreams, often coming up with shocking, imaginative ideas, and being considered a liar who peddle false hopes with electric cars, solar panels and rockets.
In 2001, Musk, who left PayPal and received a $200 million cash return, was involved in a project to send a small greenhouse to Mars and tried to travel to Russia to buy a launch vehicle, but the offer was unacceptable to Musk. After returning to China, he founded SPACEX, the American space exploration technology company, in 2002, and paid $100 million out of his own pocket, making him the only investor in the company. For the development of recyclable launch vehicles for private use.
For a while, everyone thought Musk was crazy, and even Armstrong, who was successful in the first moon landing, did not believe that Musk could succeed. You know, Musk, who has been addicted to space reading since childhood, regards Armstrong as his hero, so when Armstrong said these words, Musk, who was interviewed, cried.
The reality is also as predicted by everyone, although Musk has gathered a lot of NASA researchers, but the difficulty of research and development should not be underestimated. On March 24, 2006, spaceX's first launch exploded directly in the air due to the problem of the fuel tank, and the second launch in 2007 failed due to the vibration of the fuel tank.
In August 2008, the third launch failed again, leaving Musk's life at the bottom.
In six years, Musk experienced the death of his eldest son and the breakdown of his marriage, at the same time, rocket research and development also left his personal assets, he sold his luxury car and villa, in addition to SpaceX, even the Tras car he invested in in 2004, also because of the delay in delivery into a public relations crisis, facing the possibility of closing at any time.
With the third failed launch, Musk was left with only one last chance to launch.
On September 28, 2008, the Falcon I rocket carrying only 360 pounds of virtual cargo ignited, and after the first stage of the arrow body was detached, the second stage arrow body "Tea Falcon" began to fly after 90 seconds of start-up, and in the cheers of the employees, the "Tea Falcon" carrying the virtual cargo began to burn for up to 6 minutes as planned. The fairing opens and falls back to the ground 3 minutes after launch. Eventually, after a 9-minute journey, Falcon 1 stopped working as planned.
After 6 years, the efforts of 500 people, the world's first privately developed rocket created the miracle of modern business and science, Musk stepped out of the crowd, and the light it emitted almost made him a realistic version of Iron Man.
Musk succeeded, but that success didn't solve his financial dilemma. Although SpaceX won a commercial contract to launch a satellite for the Malaysian government, both the launch and the payment would not be completed until mid-2009.
Until then, SpaceX had to struggle to pay its employees. As Musk browsed the finances of SpaceX and Tesla, he found that only one company had a chance of surviving. Just as Musk was pondering, the economic environment in the United States deteriorated sharply, and Musk's financial situation became more difficult.
At the end of 2008, Musk ran out of money. In order to pay employees a weekly salary, Musk asked for help from friends while circling with investors. He made a sincere plea to every friend he thought of that might squeeze out a little money.
At this point, NASA reached out and offered SpaceX a large order of up to $1.6 billion, solving the funding problem for the Falcon 9, which was under development. When he heard the news, Musk cried again. We know that NASA's previous rockets were almost monopolized by Loma and Boeing, and the two companies established a joint reflection alliance ULA to adjust the business to reduce development costs.
Still, NASA hopes that new, smaller companies like SpaceX will come forward, which could significantly reduce the cost of space exploration. This is not the first time NASA has aided SpaceX, as early as 2006, it invested $8 million and $278 million in the development of Falcon 9.
On the other hand, the first Tesla car that Musk presided over the development of was born, and the German Daimler Automobile Group bought 10% of Tesla's shares for $50 million, which temporarily alleviated Tesla's financial problems.
In 2010, spaceX developed rockets that have surpassed the mainland and Russia in terms of cost, and on December 8 of the same year, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the Dragon spacecraft into Earth orbit, which is the first spacecraft in the history of the world to be launched into space by a private company and can be successfully returned. There are only four in the world that have mastered spacecraft launch recovery technology: the United States, Russia, China, and Elon Musk.
On December 21, 2015, the "Falcon 9" rocket was launched for the 20th time, the first stage of the rocket landed successfully at the first landing site of Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, and the rocket landed steadily on an unmanned barge called "Of Course I Still Love You" (of course, I still love you), realizing the fully controllable recovery of the first stage of the human space orbit launch vehicle, which is very difficult technically, and some people describe it as "letting the broom handle stand upright in the palm of the hand in the wind".
A new era in the history of human spaceflight was ushered in. In the same year, SpaceX received a $2.6 billion manned space contract from NASA and has received at least 33 commercial launch orders in the four years since.
On February 6, 2018, with the successful launch of the Falcon 9 Heavy rocket, Space-X once again made history, and Musk once again became the focus of the world. You may not know the "Falcon Heavy", it is the world's most active vehicle in service, this rocket's 3 rocket boosters can all be recycled, is the largest rocket ever built by a private company, will open the era of cheap launch of super heavy rockets.
And the object on the rocket this time is nothing else, it is Musk's own cherry red Tesla Roadster sports car. According to SpaceX's calculations, the Roadster will fly within the solar system for a long time after entering the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, and if there are no accidents, the car will fly in the universe for more than 1 billion years. If one day the aliens come, they will also see the car flying.
Boeing once tweeted, "We're going to go to Mars before Elon Musk!" Musk quickly replied, "Do what you say." "To date, SpaceX has securely launched more than 100 times, including commercial satellites and U.S. government launch missions, with more than $12 billion in contracts for services.
Also building on the achievements of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, SpaceX is developing the next generation of fully reusable rockets, the Great Falcon Rocket, which can transport humans to Mars and the more distant deep space in the solar system.
On September 13, 2018, local time in the United States, SpaceX released a big news that they were going to use the new giant Falcon rocket BFR to complete a space trip around the moon. The first passenger was Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the 42-year-old Japanese fashion website Zozotown, and the cost of this dream trip was 100-500 million US dollars.
In a meeting with the National Space Council, Trump also praised the private U.S. space companies SpaceX and Blue Origin, which he encouraged, along with other non-traditional space companies founded by American entrepreneurs, to beat NASA and land on Mars first.
Jeff Hammerbacher once said, "The best minds in our generation are thinking about how to get people to click on ads, and that's terrible." Musk's invention pulled people out of the progress of the screen of "carving worm tricks", Google co-founder Page once said that he would rather donate his property after death to people like Musk to change the world, at the moment, Musk is one step further from the "Mars Colonization Program", in the words he often quotes Churchill, since you must cross hell, then go on.
Born in South Africa in 1971, to a middle-class family, he lived in very privileged conditions, and as the youngest son, any demands made by Musk in his childhood would be met, but the richness of his material life did not fill his heart that was gradually empty due to lack of love. In the quarrel between his parents, Musk spent most of his time with the books on the cabinet.
He was hungry for knowledge, and he saw a larger world in the books.
At the age of 8, his parents divorced, musk lived with his grumpy father, in his words, you can think of all the evil things, he did.
Pain, loneliness, so that Musk can only seek comfort in books, he loves science fiction, those sounding ethereal space stories, let him full of fantasies about the outer galaxy.
At the age of 10, Musk got his first computer, and at the age of 12, he used it to develop a game called Blastar, which earned $500. In Musk's mind at that time, the first computer, the first moon landing, the United States, is a veritable science and technology paradise.
In order to ascend to the land of the United States, Musk entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 with honors to pursue a master's degree in physics and economics, and after obtaining a degree, he entered the famous Ivy League university in the United States to pursue a doctorate.
However, like too many entrepreneurs, Musk dropped out before getting his Ph.D., and in 1995, together with his brother, he founded a company that developed online content publishing software for news organizations, equivalent to a combination of the original Google Maps and the review site Yelp, and the New York Times and the Chicago Post became Musk's users for a time.
In 1999, the software development company was acquired by Compaq Computer Manufacturing, and Musk used half of the $22 million he earned to start a company with two other Silicon Valley partners that provides online financial services and email payments, X.com.
A year later, the company merged with Confinity, and the new company was named PayPal. In 2002, it was acquired by eBay, Musk received $165 million, and after a period of tenure as CEO, he left the company due to a failed internal struggle.
Describing Musk's wealth, the U.S. media said, "Unless a money shredder is built, there will be no faster way to destroy Musk's wealth." Musk's crazy personality came to life again at this point, in his words, "It doesn't make sense to me to be the richest dead man in the cemetery, what I care about is telling myself every night before going to sleep that I'm doing something super cool." ”
So, what are these cool things?
Let's look back at Musk again in 2002, he had $200 million in cash at the time, he did not buy a house, did not invest in traditional industries, but very boldly chose new energy vehicles, aerospace and urban lighting.
In particular, SpaceX's private rocket research and development project made Musk once on the verge of bankruptcy, relying on lending money to employees to pay wages. In the end, he finally silenced those who laughed at him, and the Falcon Heavy rocket he presided over surpassed China and the United States as the cheapest heavy launch vehicle under equal power.
Recently, the underground tunnel built by Musk's boring company to alleviate traffic pressure has also been completed.
In the more than a decade since 2002, he has received government subsidies of up to $4.9 billion, also because he is ridiculed as where there is government investment, there is Musk. People often compare him to Jobs, who are a bit paranoid, a bit grumpy, both dropped out of school, and both like to cross borders.
But, contrary to the simplicity that Jobs espoused, Musk's personal life was unpleasant. He has a tortuous marriage, smokes marijuana on TV, treats his subordinates coldly and ruthlessly, always stages a realistic version of Iron Man, and was once ridiculed as the American Jia Yueting. There's a classic line in When Happiness Knocks: "If you have a dream, you have to defend it!" ”
So when Musk was rejected by Armstrong and had tears in his eyes, I was moved. Even though you don't like it, you still have to admit that he is a true business wizard and a true madman