SpaceX makes history
Elon musk Faces Doubts About Whether He Can Still Deliver. Starship Stuck The Landing
SpaceX achieved a world first by returning its Starship rocket booster to its launch site, a reminder that Elon musk can prove the doubters wrong.
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The Lede
It was a moment for the history books. As SpaceX's Starship took flight for the fifth time from its launch site in southern Texas, the marvel of seeing the most powerful rocket ever soar into the skies was more than matched by the landing. For Elon musk, this was a seminal moment: Not only had the company he founded in 2002 pulled off an engineering world-first that seemed implausible a few years ago, but it had also given him a chance to prove to doubters that he could deliver on cosmic-scale ambitions.
Key Details
- musk made a huge leap forward in his mission to create large rockets that can be reused and that may one day carry crew and cargo to Mars and beyond.
- As musk's corporate empire has expanded since founding SpaceX 22 years ago — he became Tesla's CEO in 2008 and led a $44 billion takeover of Twitter in 2022 — he's made a habit of making big promises that seem difficult to accomplish.
- Investors, employees, and regulators alike are keeping an eye on how many other big dreams will translate to reality.
