Has Elon Musk been to space? That’s a question that’s often asked, and one that’s been the topic of intense debate for years. Musk has said that he is interested in exploring space, but has not yet made the trip himself. Nevertheless, he may very well do so this decade. For one, the Moon is only a quarter-million miles away from Earth, while Branson and Bezos have already done so.
And SpaceX’s Dragon capsule is designed to allow humans to travel to orbit. Although he has not yet travelled into space, his company has developed a human-carrying capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. That rocket used a Russian booster from Kazakhstan.
While it may seem strange to think that a billionaire has not traveled to space yet, the founder of SpaceX has been a pioneer in sending an all-civilian flight into space. In fact, he was at the launch site to cheer the private astronauts on their return. Despite being the CEO of SpaceX, he did not even go to space once, as Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have. Reisman believes that Musk hasn’t been impressed with their trips to space. He has always wanted to go to Mars, and it seems that he has a keen eye for it.
In December, Elon Musk reiterated his desire to go to Mars. In fact, he wants to send a group of paying customers on a SpaceX rocket by 2020. He’s not the only billionaire with space plans, as SpaceX is proving its capabilities in orbit. The CEO of SpaceX also owns other space companies like Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Company. So, how often will Elon Musk fly into space?
One of the hottest topics in space at the moment is whether he’s been to space. Elon Musk has a long and colorful career in the tech industry, having founded PayPal and SpaceX. Despite these two accomplishments, he’s yet to visit space, but he’s certainly working towards it. There’s no doubt that Musk is passionate about space. If he’s ever been to space, it’s likely he’ll tell you.
Musk’s recent history with space travel is nothing new. Musk resurrected America’s space ambitions just two decades ago. SpaceX was the first private company to send astronauts to orbit. The company launched four astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is slated to arrive at the ISS sixteen hours after liftoff. NASA space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said the crew was one of the most diverse in history.
Despite his many accomplishments, Musk’s dream of sending humans to Mars remains unrealized. Musk has said that the first Starship rocket will launch in March, which would be the first ever in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history. But the company has faced numerous hurdles – regulatory hurdles, technical obstacles, and a billion-dollar NASA contract. He is also famous for setting unrealistic timelines. So has the dream of space flight been realized?
In fact, rockets are still prone to failure despite decades of development. Despite the huge success of SpaceX’s crewed flights, rockets are still highly risky. They’re also highly unstable, and Musk may have calculated that these little risks outweighed the benefits of space travel. If he’s been to space and has a re-crewed rocket in his back pocket, he’s probably been there.
Despite these risks, the Roadster will almost certainly be in one piece. Although it might have been dingy and dinged by meteorites, it’s been able to travel nearly two billion miles over the past four years. And while most of this space travel happens in the barren space, the Roadster sometimes gets close to celestial bodies. In 2020, it made its first close approach to Mars and came within five million miles of the planet – about 20 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
The SpaceX founder has spoken of his goal of building a city on Mars. But such a settlement would require large numbers of people. Therefore, the SpaceX founder has been working to develop the Starship, a rocket and spacecraft combination. It has the potential to ferry more than 100 people to Mars. Additionally, the SpaceX Starship is designed to be reusable, with its hardware capable of returning to Earth.