Elon Musk Pitched Donald Trump On SpaceX Mission To Colonize Other Planets
Business wass booming for SpaceX in 2017 with a string of successful launches and the development of a new heavy duty rocket slated for testing this year. However the recent bombshell book "Fire and Fury" revealed more of the private space firm's goals that goes beyond being NASA's workhorse.
In his book, author Michael Wolff revealed that Musk tried to pique Donald Trump's interest in colonizing other planets shortly after he was elected. One scene described a meeting at Trump Tower where then-president-elect Trump was taking meetings with tech titans like Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
"Elon Musk, in Trump Tower, pitched Trump on the new administration's joining him in his race to Mars, which Trump jumped at," Wolff wrote in his tell-all book. Musk obviously wants to keep his company front-of-mind with regards to the broad scope of national space exploration.
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In response to the recent revelation, a spokesperson from SpaceX indirectly confirmed that the conversation did happen. However, it wasn't about Elon Musk personally getting to Mars – which has been Musk's dream – but rather "making humans multi-planetary" which is the company's mission, a goal which Musk has been very vocal about saying it was "high time that humanity went beyond Earth."
"Should have a moon base by now and sent astronauts to Mars," Musk tweeted back in December. "The future needs to inspire."
His proposition probably didn't fell on deaf ears as the President Trump has previously expressed interest in jump-starting the national space program. He also signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act in March last year, a law calling for a $19.5 billion yearly budget for NASA.
However, Musk isn't banking on NASA alone with regards to his vision as SpaceX itself is planning a privately-funded mission to Mars. With the recent unveiling of the Falcon Heavy rocket, the private space firm could beat NASA in landing an astronaut on the red planet.
