He'd better be, because the new space race already is under way and competition is shaping up as fierce. Rutan's chief rival may ultimately be Elon Musk. A former Internet mogul who in 2002 sold his online payment company, PayPal, to eBay for 1.5 billion in stock, Musk now runs SpaceX in El Segundo, Calif., which is developing an orbital space vehicle. Musk notes that making it into orbit requires going eight times faster and producing 65 times more rocket energy than a suborbital vehicle like SpaceShipOne. Musk has already put more than 50 million into SpaceX and says he is prepared to invest 50 million more. He expects it to take at least five years to get passengers into orbit. In the meantime, SpaceX is generating revenue by booking orders to launch satellites its first such launch is scheduled for January. Our earned revenue will be 35 million after a little more than two years of operation, ... By comparison, the X-Prize was a one-off of 10 million, and it took Burt something like five years to do it.
More Quotes from Elon Musk:
What Space X ultimately contributes to space travel might please the government in other ways. One of the significant innovations of Falcon V is that because it's got five engines on the main stage, it can actually lose an engine and reach orbit safely, ... If the space shuttle were to lose one of its solid rocket boosters the people on the shuttle would be doomed.Elon Musk
Target launch date for Falcon I maiden flight is Halloween (October 31) from our island launch complex in the Kwajalein Atoll. For potential customers out there, I should mention that Kwajalein has some of the worlds best scuba diving and snorkeling It is
Elon Musk
To the best of my knowledge, every booster engine qualification program in history has had numerous failures of the kind that recently occurred with Merlin, so this is not unusual.
Elon Musk
I think I can say with confidence that we've left no stone unturned. We've made no shortcuts in development. We've done everything we can.
Elon Musk
Consistent with our policy, we must be 100 percent green for launch with no outstanding concerns whatsoever. It is not just a matter of repairing the damage, but also understanding at a fundamental level how to ensure it never happens again.
Elon Musk
It's been 3 12 years, almost, of very difficult development and we're finally at the stage where we are able to launch and we feel we've done everything we possibly can to ensure that it's a reliable launch.
Elon Musk
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Based on Topics: Competition Quotes, Space QuotesBased on Keywords: burt, calif, elon, mogul, musk, one-off, orbital, segundo, spacex, suborbital, x-prize
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