In the past few months, crewed spaceflights have lift-off to space, including several billionaires. But despite having the capabilities of sending crewed spaceflights, Elon Musk has not yet gone to space.
This has led the public to ask whether Musk ever has plans in going to space himself. If he wanted to, he could fly his own rocket to orbit and spend an entire week on the Dragon capsule and show up other billionaires who recently went to space.
US entrepreneur and business magnate Elon Musk gestures during a visit at the Tesla Gigafactory plant under construction, on August 13, 2021 in Gruenheide near Berlin, eastern Germany. (Photo by Patrick Pleul / POOL / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK PLEUL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Billionaires in Space
As technology advances, space tourism has also become more popular, especially to those who can afford it. This year has witnessed civilians being ferried to space by rockets and spacecraft from private companies, unlike in the past when sending humans was only done by the government.
In July this year, two billionaires went to space. First was Sir Richard Branson who went to space on July 11 along with his five crew members aboard his SpaceShipTwo and reached an altitude of 53.5 miles (86 kilometers) over New Mexico.
Then over a week later, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos flew to suborbital space on July 20 aboard Blue Origin's suborbital space tourism vehicle New Shepard. He was joined by three other people who enjoyed the rocket ride and microgravity flips.
Then the latest one was SpaceX's Inspiration4, the first all-civilian human spaceflight mission to orbit Earth. The mission carried four non-professional astronauts led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
With all these private citizens and billionaires going to space recently, the public is now asking whether Musk has any plans of going to space himself. That is a question that only he could answer as of the moment.
Not Yet A Priority
Retired NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who worked as senior adviser to SpaceX, shared in an interview with The Atlantic an anecdote that might hint why Musk has yet to fly to space.
He narrated that he was discussing future crewed flights with Musk that will carry a NASA astronaut and one from Boeing. He said that it would be a good boost for morale if the project will be successful. However, Musk only replied: 'Why would anyone want to go to low-Earth orbit?'"
Reisman believes that Musk does not find it impressive to reach low-Earth Orbit where thousands of satellites and the International Space Station are currently floating.
Musk has always been focused on his goal of going to the Moon and ars. He has a vision of creating a base for humanity on the lunar surface that he was aghast with NASA's lack of progress on a Mars mission, Reisman said.
Musk's goal is to build a city on Mars and make humankind a multi-planetary species. Some SpaceX employees believe that Musk could someday board one of the first crewed flights of Starship, which is under development to send crewed flights to the lunar surface and Mars.
According to Inverse, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are offering suborbital space tourism flights that enable the rich to buy a ticket and experience a few hours of weightlessness. Sending their founders was just a demonstration that going to space is fun. However, SpaceX has a different goal with its crewed missions.
Musk's company is sending people in space that focus on completing experiments or philanthropic work. This includes the recent Inspiration4 and the Ax-1 mission on January 2022. Perhaps Musk will go to space someday, but it is not yet SpaceX's priority as of now.
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