Elon Musk Featured on 60 Minutes

[dpeilow]

Having watched the video, it says "in the history of spaceflight only four entities have launched a space capsule into orbit and successfully brought it back to the Earth."

That's moving the goal posts compared to the earlier statement


TEG found the Japanese one I was referring to.

The ESA mission was the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator, which was an Apollo-style capsule that was flown in 1998 to gather data on reentry systems needed for future crewed vehicles. It went on a 850km sub-orbital flight for 1.5 hours, landing near Hawaii.

 

[GSP]

Seems to me that the Japanese mission should count, since it went *beyond* orbit. Interesting that it was named after a Falcon. Elon will be able
to relate to that.

GSP

 

[doug]

I've seen some of the testimony by those former NASA astronauts and at least one former NASA administrator. I didn't construe what they had to say to be a direct attack on SpaceX, as 60 minutes characterized it...

An Apollo Tribute to SpaceX | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Neil Armstrong wrote a strongly worded letter to 60 Minutes saying that he was taken out of context. The program editor agreed: "Armstrong wrote us to say we had not been complete in our description of his testimony. He's right.

Armstrong is, arguably, the greatest explorer of the 20th Century. I suspect he has admiration for anyone in science or business who sees new possibilities. He may not be confident in a particular federal policy, but I imagine Neil Armstrong stands squarely on the side of those who dare to dream."
— from the CBS Editors Blog

 

[Grendal]

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I really like the quote from Buzz Aldrin "And now, A giant leap for commercial space!"

Very classy and well said from a great pioneer.