Every so often, my wife and I get a chance to watch 60 minutes, the hour long news segment that delves deep into intriguing stories to flesh out the details, the players, and the events. 60 minutes, in my mind, is far more fascinating than the regular daily news because often times it doesn't solely focus on the negative events throughout the world, but often times brings to light positive events and the people involved. Last night one of the segments was on SpaceX, a company in California that is one of the few competing for the government contract to produce the next manned space vehicle. The reason this company was highlighted versus the others also designing and building space vehicles was because just recently they launched an unmanned cargo vehicle into space, rendezvoused and docked with the international space station, and consequently returned to earth. This event marked the first time that a private space company was able to accomplish such a feat. What makes this even more intriguing is that the company has only been working on space vehicles for ten years. On top of the fact that the company has only been around for ten years, they manufacture practically every facet of the vehicle themselves taking in sheets of metal and fabricating everything in house. In a day and age where everything is outsourced, this is perhaps one of the few beacons of hope that manufacturing has not lost all of its hold in the United States. It appears that we are on the cusp of a new era of space exploration and travel.
The founder of the company, Elon Musk, is a mere 40 years old, reportedly worth around 2 billion dollars, and a true entrepreneur. He came into his money by being one of the co-founders of Pay Pal (which I am sure almost everyone has heard of) and in addition to SpaceX has also started the Tesla Motor Company which produces the Tesla Roadster, an entirely electric car. But SpaceX is his current pride and joy, an attempt to make space travel and exploration available to the masses. He has reportedly pumped around $100 million of his own money into the company and has an inner drive to succeed that is rare in this day and age. He currently employs around 1400 people at his SpaceX plant which has designed and built from scratch both the rocket and the capsule. There is a minor dark side to all of this however. That dark side is the attempt by some former astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan the notables, to cast doubt on the ability of Musk's company to produce a space vehicle that is safe and effective. They have both testified in front of Congress in an attempt to prevent any government funding from reaching Elon's hands. Watching 60 Minutes last night brought about a touching moment when Elon was confronted with this. To Elon, Neil Armstrong was one of the astronauts that inspired him to create his business and push to make space travel and exploration available to the masses. To hear Mr. Armstrong speak out against Musk was crushing to him and he only hopes that they will have a change of heart.
Personally, I would love the opportunity to travel into space for whatever reason. That being said, however, I highly doubt that I will ever have the opportunity or the resources to do so. That is unless Musk is truly successful at making spaceflight affordable and available to everyone. I am sure that it is still years away from being a reality, but one can hope. Going beyond the fact that we are talking about the "final frontier" and new space vehicles, this segment on 60 Minutes highlights what is to me, a glimmer of hope for America's future. This story just goes to show that if you dream big enough and foment a plan to reach your dreams, anything is possible. Innovation has not completely gone down the tubes in the United States, rather, it has taken a back seat to all our economic woes. If someone like Musk can create a viable space company and employ 1400 people, than nothing is off the table when it comes to creating jobs in this country. This just goes to show that we can not rely on our government to boost our economy back to where it needs to be, we as a people need to step up to the plate and push forward despite what the economy is doing. Simply because some government analysts say that we are in the crapper does not mean that every aspect of our lives needs to be in the crapper. There is growth out there, it may be small, but it is there and we need to find it and nurture it to life. Granted, not everyone is a billionaire capable of spending $100 million on their own company, but it doesn't need to be on that grand of a scale. What we need to do is to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and get of our asses and make life happen. If we sit around to long, life will pass us by while we watch. Rather, let us get up, grab life by the horns and make it work for us!
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