Subject
4 entries
Spacex
Bookmarks
Elon Musk's Mission to Mars — Wired
Wired's 2012 Q&A with Elon Musk on SpaceX's Mars mission — a document of his stated ambitions before they seemed plausible. Musk articulates the multi-planetary species argument and SpaceX's approach to reusable rockets while Falcon 9 was still new.
SpaceX Wins $440M NASA Contract for Crew Transport to ISS
SpaceX won a $440 million NASA Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) contract in August 2012 to develop crew transportation to the ISS, targeting astronaut flights by 2015. This was a key milestone in the shift from government-run to commercially-contracted human spaceflight.
SpaceX Dragon Carried Scotty's Ashes Into Space
SpaceX's Dragon capsule carried the cremated remains of James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek) on its historic first commercial cargo mission to the ISS. A poetic conjunction: the man who inspired generations of engineers, finally reaching the stars.
SpaceX: Why the US Can Beat China — The Facts About SpaceX Costs
SpaceX's 2012 cost comparison page arguing that US private spaceflight could beat China on launch costs — published the same week Facebook acquired Instagram. The bookmarker's observation that Facebook could have funded a space program with Instagram money captures the era's startup-vs-frontier absurdity.