Everything seems to be succeeding for the futuristic boss of Tesla, Space X and Twitter! The new ability to reuse super-heavy rockets, demonstrated by Starship on October 13, stunned the entire world. To the great despair of Musk’s detractors, the science fiction fan is also an unconditional supporter of Donald Trump…
You could believe you had broken into the crazy dream of a child who was no less crazy. Or embarked on the hallucinatory sequence of an avant-garde video game. A rocket body seventy meters high coming back from space full of fire, going from a speed of some six thousand kilometers per hour to the pace of a pedestrian, correcting the angle of approaches to come, like a transfixed lover, to curl up in the articulated arms of the good giant who, patiently, is waiting for her on the cow’s floor. All this done down to the second.
The child with a lit imagination probably dreamed of it while leafing through his science fiction illustrations. Elon Musk did it.
Before our eyes, we were witnessing this Sunday, October 13, an authentically historic phase of the space epic. A giant step which left its most advanced competitors, China and Russia, behind. But also Europe which, with Ariadne and its recent disappointments, seems to have somewhat lost track of this almost Promethean odyssey. In April, for the orbiting of Galileo, the satellite system supposed to guarantee the European sovereignty of GPS applications, Ariane 6 being worn out, we had to resign ourselves to knocking on Musk’s door and taking the mess aboard his machine . Sovereignty somewhat damaged as a result, we will agree.
Also read: Elon Musk: But why is he so mean?
With Starship, Musk invents the rocket that should delight even the most careful environmentalists, the sustainable and supportive rocket. Sustainable since it is reusable, and supportive, as we have just seen. In addition, it has the remarkable advantage of being the most powerful ever built. As long as we do, we do, such is the rule among Musk and crazy people of this ilk.
Obviously, you have to be somewhat crazy, to dare to embark on such adventures, to devote your entire life to them. Adventures that are barely conceivable for a State that is not a superpower, and even less so for a simple individual. We are here in the reserved domain of crazy heads, those for whom the impossible is the privileged playground and for whom the unreasonable is ordinary reason. Would old Europe, France, out of breath, lack it?
Musk himself claims his difference, making no secret of having Asperger’s syndrome. “I know I say or post strange things, but that’s the way my brain works,” he confesses. Not without a certain complacency, a certain ostentation, because the man likes appearance, chic and shocking staging. He has this in common with another crazy genius, Nikola Tesla, under whose sponsorship he placed his automobile brand, giving it his name. This discoverer, this visionary who was also one of the most prolific in his time – more than three hundred patents to his credit – readily gave in exuberance, even provocation. This annoyed a lot. Just like Musk annoys. He is all the more infuriating because, imagine, in the current American presidential election campaign he is pushing the envelope of impropriety to the point of supporting the wrong person, the critic of the purring system, Donald Trump himself! A character that it is hardly an exaggeration to also place in the crazy category. On a whole different level, though.
Also read: Who burned the fund?
Ms. Kamala Harris prides herself on having the star Taylor Swift and the past president Barack Obama. Both having to date never succeeded – as far as I know – in getting the toothpaste into the tube once it has come out – Starship’s feat is indeed of this order -there ! – Mrs. Harris, unfailing white-toothed smile 24 hours a day, must find this support very lackluster in recent days. More seriously, I don’t know if Musk’s exploit can benefit his foal Trump. However, I know full well that there would have been no shortage of voices – including from us, follow my gaze – in the event of failure to bring them together in a trial for incompetence and imposture. This incendiary counter-rocket will therefore not even have to leave its launch pad. When it doesn’t want, it doesn’t want…
Causeur lives only through its readers, this is the only guarantee of its independence.
To support us, buy Causeur on newsstands or subscribe!
