SpaceX made history as it returned its Super Heavy booster to its launch site in Texas. For Elon Musk, it was a chance to prove the doubters wrong—and he did. However, missed deadlines and issues across his companies have raised concerns about his ability to deliver.
Falcon 9’s first stage booster lands for the 19th time ahead of recovery and refurbishment for its next mission pic.twitter.com/I7LO8wLWmK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 15, 2024
It was a moment for the history books.
Nine Merlin engines at full power and liftoff of Falcon 9! pic.twitter.com/Cyvm21kZdD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) October 15, 2024
As the Super Heavy rocket took flight for the fifth time from its launch site in southern Texas on Sunday, the marvel of seeing the most powerful rocket ever soar into the skies was more than matched by the landing. The first-stage booster was fully recovered as it descended into the chopstick-like arms of the “Mechazilla” tower, from which it had taken off about seven minutes prior before reaching the edge of space.
In praise of mystery ✨
After a successful launch aboard a @SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from @NASAKennedy, @EuropaClipper is on its way from our ocean world to another to see if Jupiter's moon Europa has conditions suitable for life: https://t.co/nfI8RjiAuQ pic.twitter.com/rLJdUg7VHk
— NASA (@NASA) October 14, 2024
This was a seminal moment for Elon Musk: Not only had the company he founded in 2002 pulled off a feat that seemed implausible a few years ago, but it had also given him a chance to prove to doubters that he could deliver on cosmic-scale ambitions. The billionaire, who has repeatedly talked of his dreams to take humanity to Mars and beyond, has long touted the need for reusable rockets to achieve that goal — for both cost and technical reasons — while being upfront about how difficult it is to create them. The widely watched catch was undoubtedly a victory.
FAA has given the go-ahead for Starship Flight 5.
“The FAA has issued a license modification authorizing SpaceX to launch multiple missions of the Starship/Super Heavy vehicle on the Flight 5 mission profile. The FAA determined SpaceX met all safety, environmental and other…
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) October 12, 2024
But as Musk continues to lead sprawling companies with ambitions to dominate everything from space to AI to autonomous cars, investors, employees, and regulators alike are keeping a close eye on how many other big dreams will translate to reality. At a National Press Club gathering in 2011, Musk pointed out that an orbit-class rocket that could make life multi-planetary was a “very tough engineering problem” due to the strength of Earth’s gravity. That didn’t phase him too much.
He told the audience that he could solve the engineering problem and that SpaceX was “going to try to do it.” Some 13 years on, the rest is history. SpaceX is now highly accustomed to landing rocket boosters, but never before at this scale on land.
SpaceX makes history with Starship
In doing so, Musk made a huge leap forward in his mission to create large rockets that can be reused, and that may one day carry crew and cargo to Mars and beyond. SpaceX employee Dan Huot captured the feelings of several of his colleagues: “I’m crying right now.”
Musk earned online applause from legions of Starship fans, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who tweeted his congratulations and admitted, “rewatched the video many times over, incredible to see!”
As Musk’s corporate empire has expanded since founding SpaceX 22 years ago — he became Tesla’s CEO in 2008 and led a dramatic transformation in 2022 — he has made a habit of making big promises that seem fiendishly difficult to accomplish. Musk also founded Neuralink, which is testing a brain implant, and xAI, a startup building AI to accelerate scientific discovery.
In 2019, Musk said Tesla would “have more than 1 million robotaxis on the road” in 2020, a deadline that sailed by without the company putting an autonomous taxi on the road. His eventual Cybercab launch, which came last week at Tesla’s Robotaxi Day, failed to impress investors, resulting in a significant drop in the company’s market capitalization. Wall Street analysts attributed the decline partly to skepticism over Tesla’s ability to deliver fully autonomous driving.
On a 2021 episode of the Lex Fridman podcast, Musk described the difficulty of the task he had set himself: “We’re talking about catching the largest flying object ever made on a giant tower with chopstick arms. It’s like Karate Kid with the fly, but much bigger,” he said, referencing a scene from the 1984 film in which the main character uses a pair of chopsticks to catch a moving fly. “Bananas stuff,” as he put it then.
The billionaire will have the opportunity to prove that he can pull off more extraordinary feats soon enough. Next year, SpaceX will aim to complete a crewed orbit of the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis II mission. In 2026, it is slated to be involved in the Artemis III mission, which aims to land humans on the Moon.
Can he help achieve something that hasn’t been done since 1972, the last time humans landed on the Moon? As his old pal Peter Thiel once said, “Never bet against Elon.”
