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Elon Musk - PR project of global elites
July 29, 2023
Rybar
In the media space, including in Russia, a positive image of Elon Musk has been formed. He is a successful entrepreneur and owner of TESLA, SpaceX and STARLINK, a visionary conqueror of space and an eccentric seller of flamethrowers against zombies. But behind this colorful facade there is a technological empire deeply integrated into the US military-industrial complex.
Main stages of the project development
The ambitious entrepreneur made a name for himself in 2001, when he voiced the idea of ​​conquering space and flying to Mars. This in itself is very unusual for a person without relevant experience and appropriate funding. The next step was even more intriguing: Musk came to Russia to buy a launch vehicle. The negotiations reached a dead end, although the purpose of the visit was probably a beautiful media picture. After the visit, Musk announced the need to create his own engine.
In 2002, the SpaceX company was created, and Musk transferred its management to Tom Mueller, who had previously headed the development of a hydrogen engine at the military company TRW, which later became part of the military holding Northrop Grumman. The public is being convinced that the vice president of the Pentagon's largest contractor, working on the most promising hydrogen engine project funded by NASA and the US Department of Defense, is about to go into Elon Musk's "garage" and start working on an oxygen-kerosene engine, which is a much lower stage of evolution in rocket science.
Tom Mueller is not moving alone. He brings a team of talented engineers (with access to classified information), brings some classified technologies and information that can be patented. And all this happens easily and naturally without any serious consequences for SpaceX.
The SpaceX team led by Tom Mueller managed to make their Merlin engine in less than 4 years. For reference: creating a rocket engine from scratch requires several years of scientific development, the manufacture of hundreds of prototypes and conducting many cyclic tests. At the same time, the public is convinced that Musk is working practically alone in a garage on sheer enthusiasm.
Musk subsequently stated that the design of the Russian RD-180 engine is impeccable, and pointed out the gaps in rocket engineering of such giants as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Public reproaches to the giants of American rocket engineering were voiced by the owner of a relatively small, at that time, startup. And they were quite justified, since the US Congress banned the purchase of Russian engines in 2014, but a year later the ban was lifted due to the lack of an alternative in the US. This suggests that creating a rocket engine is a complex task even with unlimited material, human and financial resources.
But Musk had more than just one development. He immediately presented to the public the Merlin engine, the Falcon launch vehicle, and a control system fully integrated with the Cape Canaveral launch site and the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch complex systems. It is basically impossible to design a control system that includes hundreds of control channels via an electronic interface, pipelines, pneumatics, and hydraulics without having full access to classified military documentation.
After Tom Mueller left and the acquisition of TRW, defense giant Northrop Grumman sued SpaceX for profiting from TRW's intellectual property. This was due to the transfer of a team of engineers who had previously worked at TRW to work for SpaceX and the use of their experience and knowledge. But the small startup managed to defend its position in court and settle the lawsuit. Considering the completely different weight categories and administrative resources of the companies, the settlement looks extremely unusual.
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