Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, never really agreed with Elon Musk’s role in the space race. The famous astronaut, who died in August 2012, had no qualms about voicing his opinion about SpaceX’s then fledgling business in the private space race. An opinion, which in the words of Musk himself, was a blow to the businessman who, like so many others of his generation, had the first astronauts on a pedestal. back to space is the new Netflix documentary that focuses on the intense space race that has been precipitated in recent years and on these moments of confrontation between those who were already there and those who were to come.
How could it be otherwise, Elon Musk and SpaceX are the undisputed protagonists of this marathon. The businessman’s space company was one of the first to step on the accelerator of the private division to conquer space. And as a pioneer in this segment, he also had to face the process of conquering a universe that had been the private preserve of NASA for decades. Letting a private company in on launches was, for a United States 10 years ago, a complicated decision that went beyond saving millions of dollars in investment. It was a matter of state that should be taken very seriously.
It is at that point where back to space brings out those first moments in which Elon Musk did not have the support of the one who had been the icon of the space race. Astronauts, engineers and politicians expressed their refusal at the simple idea of a private company taking sides in the space race. “It was not easy for everyone to agree”explains Lori Garver, general manager of NASA in back to space. However, it was Neil Armstrong’s own assessment, along with his Apollo IX teammates Gene Cernan and Jim Lovell, that hurt Elon Musk the most 10 years ago. “Necessary requirements will be overlooked and there will be problems,” said the astronaut. “It’s a project with a mission to nowhere. It’s a bad idea, there are a lot of startups and small companies,” he said.
It was a hard blow for Elon Musk who, in an interview at the time and which is collected in the Netflix documentary back to space, responded sincerely to Armstrong’s words. “For me they are heroes and that hurts a lot. It’s hard to hear what they say, but I wish they could come and see what we do to change their minds“, explained Elon Musk almost on the verge of tears.
Armstrong was never on Elon Musk’s side
And it is that the position of Armstrong and his colleagues regarding the activity of Elon Musk was reiterated on several occasions. Since in 2010, the then President Barack Obama announced the entry of private companies in manned space travel, the first astronauts who set foot on the moon put the cry in the sky. This was made known to NBC through an email. They urged Obama to resume the Constellation program to invest almost 6,000 million euros in what they called “commercial taxi services for space astronauts”.
Calling into question the future leadership of the United States in the space race, the group argued that “the availability of a commercial transport in orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with certainty, but it is likely to take much longer and be more expensive than we expect. Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the US is very likely on a long descent into mediocrity.”
This same position against the commercial space opening initiated by Obama was reiterated in the United States Congress. After these statements, the group clarified that although they did not agree with how new companies had been allowed to enter the space race, they did support the initiative of entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk and urged them to continue working to reach their goals. That was precisely what Elon Musk ended up doing, who in response to Armstrong’s opinions assured that he would continue trying to achieve his goal of reaching space.
Finally, Neil Armstrong passed away in August 2012, long before Elon Musk’s SpaceX began to achieve its first successes. That there was talk of space tourism or movies on the International Space Station – perhaps Armstrong would have a lot to say in this regard –. The vertical landing of rockets on maritime platforms in order to save the manufacturing costs of each one of the launches. The first rockets and the first crewed launch of a SpaceX ship, the Crew Dragon, on its mission to reach the International Space Station. Also long before being the company, along with others in its group, to once again take crewed missions to the Moon – the one that Armstrong stepped on for the first time in 1969 – and before setting himself the goal –somewhat ambitious– of taking humans to Mars before the decade is out.