Russians spit at Elon Musk: The true reason for the creation of SpaceX is revealed

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver in her memoirs confessed to an unpleasant incident that occurred in Russia with Elon Musk, which subsequently motivated the richest man on the planet to create SpaceX. This happened after a Russian engineer literally spat on him.

sulting act of the Russian motivated Elon Musk to create a SpaceX company. Photo: Unsplash

In a memoir titled “Escape from Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age,” Lori recalls what made Elon Musk inspired by the idea of creating SpaceX, and how he was looking for ways to implement his project. In 2001, Musk visited Russia, where he was confronted with a frankly boorish attitude and an offensive act by a Russian engineer – the future billionaire was literally spat on his shoes. 

Garver recalls that spitting on the shoes deeply offended Musk. Returning home, he firmly decided that he would create his own space company, which would eventually become a competitor to Roscosmos. The ex-head of NASA described this incident with a metaphor: “If Helen of Troy had a face that launched a thousand ships, this was the spit that launched a thousand spaceships.”

Witness of unpleasant incident

Of course, at first you might think that this case is fiction by Lori Garver. But this story was also confirmed by SpaceX co-founder Jim Cantrell. It is unpleasant for him to remember that trip to Russia. According to Cantrell, the Russians treated Musk very badly. 

“Musk came to negotiate the purchase of Russian rockets for his future project. However, the leading designer of the Russian National Space Agency was very annoyed, in the end he just got tired of listening and literally spat on our shoes,” recalls Jim Cantrell.

The discontent was caused by the fact that Musk and the Russians could not agree on the price of the rockets. The book says that on the way home, Musk decided that he wouldn’t need to buy rockets if he just made his own. Then, less than 12 months later, SpaceX was created with the firm intention to launch the production of unique rockets in the United States in order to break NASA’s dependence on Russian-made rockets.

Earlier, SpaceX performed an incredible feat in the space industry.

According to Tweak Town

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