Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, a privately owned spaceship company from California. SpaceX is the first company to send a capsule into orbit and successfully retrieved the capsule after reentry. Their Dragon Capsule will most likely be the space craft that helps the United States eliminate its dependence on the Russian built Soyuz Capsule to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX claims that the Dragon Capsule will also be the most cost effective and safest space vehicle in the market.
There are a couple of veteran Apollo astronauts, Niel Armstrong and Gene Cernan, who disagree with the Obama administration's decision to contract flights with private spaceflight companies for the transportation of American astronauts to the International Space Station. They suggest that it is safer and more efficient for the government to develop, own and operate its own fleet of space vehicles. They have yet to accept Elon Musk's invitation to visit SpaceX's facilities in California, a gesture he was hoping could clear up their concerns. But SpaceX has its own former NASA astronaut, Garrett Reisman, working on making the Dragon capsule ready for human space flight. Reisman likens Elon Musk's space flight endeavor to that of Howard Hughes and TWA.
Take some time to watch the 15 minute interview with Elon Musk on 60 minutes to see what drove this man to use his personal fortune to start a privately owned space company.
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