Superheroes are everywhere these days, and to see them, you'll only have to cough up $10 for a ticket and another $10 for popcorn. Robert Downey Jr. might be the most famous of them all--the genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist Iron Man. In the movies, he's rich, brilliant and does cool things like fly in an iron suit while Ozzy Osbourne belts out the background music. But what if we had someone with those qualities right here in the real universe?
How about the man who will, in the next few years, send the first tourist around the moon? And soon after . . . Mars. Would that qualify?
Elon Musk is from South Africa but, we'd argue, he's the epitome of the American Dream. At a young age he taught himself how to program computers and eventually came to the States where he co-founded popular payment website Paypal, formed SpaceX and became the CEO of Tesla, all companies still doing business today.
It seems the only thing Iron Musk hasn't done is make a flying suit and team up with superheroes to save the planet. ("We have a Hulk.") But Mr. Musk is only 47, so give him time.
On Monday, Elon Musk announced SpaceX's first paying customer to orbit the moon would be Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, according to The Wall Street Journal. The papers say he'll blast off in 2023, circle the moon and come back down to Earth, hopefully with a little more luck than Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton.
Forgive us for getting goosebumps when talking about this space stuff, but it's always exciting to see Homo viator, man the voyager, moving forward in this particular domain where no man has gone before. It's even more exciting when you remember we stopped the space shuttle program in 2011 and have significantly scaled back NASA's funding and operations.
And how do our astronauts get to the International Space Station now? By hitchhiking with the Russians from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. That's depressing. Didn't we beat them to the moon?
But where government has scaled back, private industry (led by people like Elon Musk) has charged forward to fill in the gaps. SpaceX is developing reusable rockets and has successfully landed them on platforms in the ocean. It also works with NASA to resupply the International Space Station using its own Dragon spacecraft.
Suffice it to say the magic of the free market has and continues to do well when it comes to the future of space exploration. And Elon Musk is a big part of that. He looked at a hole created when federal government pulled back and said, "I can help fill that." Talk about building a better mousetrap. Now, paying customers who can afford it will beat a path to his door. And he'll deserve it.
Big rewards certainly don't come without big risks. And SpaceX cannot be the only outfit working to get us to the stars. But space exploration is much better today for the involvement of SpaceX, its engineers, Mr. Musk and private enterprise.
The papers say Yusaku Maezawa will bring up to eight artists with him after handing SpaceX an undisclosed deposit. They're going to be some lucky souls to see our moon so close. And the money goes a long way toward paying not only for this trip but others as SpaceX designs and standardizes these moon vacations. Maybe one day those outings will be within reach of regular joes. Remember, most new gadgets (cars, televisions, cell phones) start out expensive.
Space still exerts a compelling attraction for mankind. And it's encouraging to see that the darkness above still calls out, and people down here on the blue planet keep answering. American ingenuity, combined with courage, combined with resources, keeps the stars within reach.
"So maybe 10 years from now, people will be laughing I paid so much, but somebody needs to make the first payment," Mr. Maezawa said of his very much pre-planned vacation. "Otherwise, space development is not going to evolve. That's why I think I should be the one to do this."
It's a deal, then.
To the moon and beyond!
Editorial on 09/19/2018