Elon Musk’s Emotional Response to a Space Milestone
The space entrepreneur acknowledged the pressure of trying to help NASA launch Americans to space again.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—About a year ago, when SpaceX made history with the successful launch of one of the most powerful rockets ever made, Elon Musk was ebullient. It had seemed possible, even to him, that on its first flight the Falcon Heavy could fail and go up in flames. So when the rocket sailed into the sky and deposited a shiny red Tesla in space, he floated into a room packed with reporters, ready to celebrate, a big grin on his face.
“It seems surreal to me,” Musk, the company’s CEO and lead designer, said then. “I had this image of just a giant explosion on the pad.”
This was not the same Elon Musk who appeared at a press conference early Saturday morning,