This is apropos two back-to-back letters carried by this newspaper on Friday and yesterday. I would add to what I have earlier said about Elon Muskm is that reaching this point of understanding and innovation has not been easy for him.

When he first introduced the concept of commercial space exploration, the entire world seemed to turn against him. During a Congressional Senate hearing in 2010, many veteran space legends, including Neil Armstrong, publicly opposed the idea of commercial space exploration.

Musk later revealed that this opposition brought him to tears. However, this criticism did not deter him. Today, SpaceX is approaching a $250 billion valuation and has conducted more than 400 launches over the past 14 years, including 15 crewed missions. Of these, ten were under contract with NASA to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Under President elect Trump, a major shake-up in US space policy began to take shape. There are discussions about potentially canceling future iterations of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) or even abandoning it altogether. Plans for Gateway, a proposed space station in lunar orbit, were also reconsidered in favor of expanding commercial contracts with companies like SpaceX. This shift aimed to accelerate efforts to send humans to Mars, a vision Musk has championed for years.

Qamar Bashir

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024