Commentary

Elon Musk's Big Bang (Not Just Theoretically)

Most entrepreneurs have some anxiety around the time their venture launches, but Elon Musk has more than most of them -- about a million pounds of dynamite’s worth. I mean that literally, not figuratively, because Musk is CEO and founder of SpaceX, a startup that has an emphasis on up - up - and away! Like above the stratosphere away. You know, into space.
 
“It’s extremely nerve-racking,” Musk told attendees during a keynote interview led by former Wired editor and 3D Robotics chairman and co-founder Chris Anderson at SXSW this afternoon.
 
“All your work is distilled into a few minutes, actually, the first few seconds following lift-off he,” he said, adding that if anything goes wrong, “the whole thing can come down with a million pounds of TNT equivalent. That’s what I’m thinking [about].”
 
In fact, Musk, who is also the co-founder of the Telsa electric car company, said SpaceX had three spaceships explode shortly after lift-off before it had a successful launch, giving a whole new meaning ot the concept of beta testing.
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