South African-born billionaire reaches for the stars
Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) – South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has made history again.
His Falcon9 rocket, which is carrying the Dragon capsule, has completed its journey to the International Space Station (ISS) where it will spend the next five days docked.
Astronauts at the station will host the capsule’s only occupant, a dummy. The capsule which blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on Sunday, will be released and returned to Earth this weekend.
Although the Dragon isn’t transporting people, it is designed to accommodate astronauts. If this mission runs smoothly, two NASA astronauts are expected to make the journey in July.
The United States has relied on Russia’s ageing Soyuz spacecraft since NASA retired the Space Shuttle in 2011.
Born in Pretoria in 1971, Musk is a technology entrepreneur who is the founder, CEO, and lead designer of SpaceX.
He started the company with US$100 million he earned from PayPal, another company he started and and sold to eBay for US$1.5 billion in 2002.
SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles with a focus on advancing the state of rocket technology. The company's first two launch vehicles were the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. In September 2008, SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket became the first privately funded liquid-fueled vehicle to put a satellite into Earth orbit.
Musk also helped fund Tesla, Inc., an electric vehicle and solar panel manufacturer and became its CEO and product architect.
His goals include reducing global warming through sustainable energy production and consumption, and reducing the risk of human extinction by establishing a human colony on Mars.
–0– PANA CU/AR 4Mar2018
