How Russia pushed Ilona Mask to the creation of Space X and the construction of rockets

February 6 company Ilona Mask SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Start was test and no payload Falcon Heavy did not carry, the booster rocket carried out the founder’s personal car into open space Space X - Tesla Roadster of red color. Now the electric car travels through space, and the inhabitants of the Earth are shown all this in real time from cameras installed on the vehicle.

Thus, Musk became the first person in the world to launch a car into space.

But his main achievement in the space sphere, of course, is not that.

First, after launch Falcon Heavy two of its three booster blocks returned safely to Earth and can be reused. Mask, contrary to NASA's convictions, proved that overclocking blocks from missiles can be used after not to burn in the atmosphere, but to land back to Earth and then reuse, which significantly reduced the cost of space flights.

Second, the Falcon Heavy - a launch vehicle that has never existed in the history of space research. Theoretically, it is capable of delivering up to 63 tons of cargo into low Earth orbit. This rocket is capable of sending more than 16 tons of cargo to Mars. The cost of one launch is estimated at 80-120 million dollars, depending on the rocket load.

None of the modern launch vehicles are able to bring such loads into orbit. For example, American Delta IV Heavy, the largest of the existing ones, is capable of delivering about 29 tons to low orbit and only 14 tons to the geostationary. The cost of launching such a rocket is estimated at 400 million dollars; and she, unlike the design SpaceX, there is no possibility to return accelerating blocks to Earth.

Musk, of course, owes this success to his own stubbornness, ability to go to the goal and belief in the idea, because he did not give up after several unsuccessful launches of his first missiles, with which millions of dollars invested in their construction exploded or broke.

But, no matter how unexpectedly it sounded, Russia gave him the impetus for this success. In 2001 year The entrepreneur held several meetings in Moscow, including with representatives of the Kosmotras company, trying to negotiate the acquisition of an intercontinental ballistic missile to send mice to Mars.

This story was told by journalist Ashley Vance in his biography of an entrepreneur “Ilon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the search for a fantastic future", Excerpts from which published edition Bloomberg.

However, the negotiations ended in vain, because the Russians did not take the businessman’s proposals seriously.

In February 2002, Musk decided to convince them of the seriousness of his intentions, returning to Russia with the money, then he wanted to buy three missiles. But in Kosmotras, he was charged $ 8 million for a rocket. He tried to bargain, offering to pay this amount for two rockets. The Russians refused, teasing Mask with the phrase: “Oh, the little boy has no money.”

Mask replied that he himself could build a rocket, and left the meeting.

During the flight from Russia to the United States, he sketched a plan for further action and told the bewildered partners that he decided to build the rockets on his own. So the story began SpaceX. In September 2008, the rocket F became the first in the history of a private rocket on liquid fuel, which went into Earth orbit. Missile success Falcon preceded by three unsuccessful launches. After that, Mask managed to learn how to return the accelerating blocks to Earth, some of them were already reused.

Well, then there was Falcon Heavy, which impressed the whole world, its launch was called a breakthrough by everyone, but the Russians were skeptical about it, perhaps because they lost the chance to be involved in the achievements of genius Ilona Mask.

The head of the Russian Space Policy Institute, Ivan Moiseev, called the launch Falcon Heavy undoubted success, however, urged not to exaggerate the significance of the launch, the newspaper writes Look.

"I would not use against launch Falcon Heavy such big words as "revolution" in the field of space ", - said Moses.

According to him, if weighed on the scales of history, it does not reach either the first manned flight into space or the landing of a man on the moon.

The expert emphasized that “so far this is only the first test launch, and the start of regular operation of the rocket is still far away.” Secondly, according to him, we should not forget that Musk still did not meet his original schedule - the entrepreneur promised to carry out the first launch Falcon Heavy summer 2017 year, that is, six months earlier than it actually happened.

Read also on ForumDaily:

“There were a lot of problems”: Ukrainian NASA engineer about the launch of Falcon Heavy

Ilon Musk: what does a person who creates the future live with

From the realm of fantasy: imagine 100 days Ilona Mask in Kiev

View of SpaceX from the inside: How it works in the company of Ilona Mask

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.