Gov. Rick Scott
and the state tourismmarketing agency continue to push lawmakers to boost marketing dollars to $100 million next year, a figure well above what the House and Senate have budgeted for Visit Florida.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said it’s a little absurd to launch a car into space with a dummy inside.
But that was the point of loading a mannequin named Starman into a Tesla Roadster and heaving him into space on the firm’s Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday, he said.
“It’s kind of silly and fun, but I think silly and fun things are important,” he said. “Other rockets launch a block of concrete, and that’s boring. The imagery [of Starman] is something that will get people excited around the world.”
Musk helped ignite the excitement of the space industry when he sent the most powerful rocket in the world on its first test flight, proving SpaceX can compete for heavy-payload missions.
The firm is already competing to become the first to send humans into space from the U.S. since 2011 with its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The Falcon Heavy flight drew huge crowds to the Space Coast.
Once the payload was delivered into space, two of the rocket’s boosters landed on dual landing pads. The third, however, crashed into the sea at 300 mph, sending shrapnel onto a SpaceX drone ship.
After the mission, Musk spoke with reporters and touched upon how the company will use Tuesday’s launch to its advantage.
On how this could affect SpaceX’s future
“I imagine large numbers of those coming in and landing, taking off, doing many flights a day. It gives me a lot of faith. I think we can really do this a lot and keep advancing the technology to achieve full and rapid reusability.”
On Falcon Heavy’s importance
“Falcon Heavy opens up new classic payloads. It can launch more than twice as much payload as any other rocket. It’s going to encourage other companies to say, ‘Hey, if SpaceX can do this, paid for with internal funds, then they can do it, too.’ I think it’ll encourage other companies to raise their sights.”
On his thoughts just before the launch
“You know all the ways it can fail, and that’s the mental checklist that is scrolling through your mind, just all of the things that can break.”
On Starman’s future
“He may be discovered by some future alien race, thinking, ‘What were they doing? Did they worship this car? Why do they have a little car in there?’ They will be really confused then.”
On Crew Dragon progress
“We are making great progress on Crew Dragon. We are all hands on deck for Crew Dragon. Our goal is, we are aspiring to fly crew to orbit by end of this year. I think the hardware will be ready.”