"Why is Elon my pick for man of the year? Don't laugh - it is because the car stunt this week. I love the brazen aspect of the entire production. He has guts and imagination."
I love this guy. Who is that? Elon Musk. He is one of the new American Captains of Industry. Jeff Bezos is also way up there in my book. So is Tim Cook. While our government stumbles all over itself trying to do just about anything, our new Captains of Industry are off and running. And it is fun to watch. ICYMI, this past Tuesday, Space X, the rocket company owned by Musk, launched what might have been the most powerful rocket - ever. We saw it on TV. It was quite a sight.
In other news, another one of Musk's companies (Tesla) had a very bad quarter. It lost a boat load of money. Musk shrugged it off. He is going full boar on production on the Tesla anyhow. Why? He is a visionary. He is in this for the long haul. How much did this news about his car company affect his rocket launch? Nada. In fact, this very powerful rocket had a very special payload. A car. Not just any car, a brand new Tesla.
Would this have ever happened with a NASA launch? Never in a million years. But Mr. Musk is his own man. And has a ton of money. So he decided it would be kind of cool to launch one of his cars into space, put it into a slingshot orbit around the sun, and then head to Mars (no, I am not making this up). Once at Mars, it will go into orbit and stay there for maybe all of eternity. To put frosting on the cake, Musk even has a dummy dressed up in a space suit sitting behind the wheel.
This is all good stuff. Seriously - it is not nutty - it is good. Our new Captains of Industry exemplify the quote Edward Kennedy offered in Robert Kennedy's eulogy - "Some men see things as they are and ask why? Others see things that never were and ask why not?"
I don't know why Elon Musk decided to put an expensive car on top of this rocket and send it to Mars. Maybe it was a bet, maybe it was a fantasy. Or, maybe he said to himself, "why not?"
By the way, Bezos is not just sitting around. Amazon announced today they are ready for two hour delivery on groceries. And Tim Cook is all over facial recognition with his new i phone. Speaking of which - get ready for a whole bunch of facial recognition devices being market ready in the very near future. Cook knew that being one of the first in facial recognition would be a huge advantage with Apple's market share.
So, why then is Elon my pick for man of the year? Don't laugh - it is because the car stunt this week. I love the brazen aspect of the entire production. He has guts and imagination. He will change the world - as well as the other Captains. Now he can truly say when asked about his Tesla cars, "they are so good, they are out of this world".
More impressive than the launch (although it was awesome), was the the ability for the booster rockets to land vertically on pads a few miles downrange following their release from the main unit. Amazing. I guess the third stage missed the recovery vessel waiting offshore, but nobodies perfect.
ReplyDeleteQuite the triumvirate you mention in your blog. Musk, Bezos and Cook. Too bad we don't have that kind of talent in Congress. Then we wouldn't have the mess we see today, with unlimited debt ceilings and spending money we don't have. One would think us snowflakes were in power, not the. I guess not so fiscally conservative GOP.