At the height of his power, Alexander the Great wept because there were no more worlds left to conquer. , the richest man of our age, may have been blubbing for a different reason last week, as yet another of his unfathomable ambitions came crashing to earth.On its ninth test flight, his ‘Starship’ enterprise, which has been designed to make ‘humans an interplanetary species’, went up with barely a hitch. Then, on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the 400ft machine lost contact with the control room, span out of control and blew up. Musk, wearing his favoured ‘OCCUPY ’ T-shirt for the big occasion, tried to put a positive spin on Starship’s third mid-flight immolation in a row. He called the crash-test ‘a big improvement’ and posted triumphant videos of the spacecraft thrusting majestically towards the heavens.But it was a major setback and everyone knew it. As the ship’s debris splashed down in the Indian ocean, Musk cancelled a celebratory speech he was meant to give to his SpaceX employees. He’d promised that astronauts would plant the American flag on the Red Planet before the President leaves office in 2028. Now that target seems hopelessly optimistic.
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