Investigation“Elon Musk, an American hero” (1/6). Who really is the billionaire who revolutionized the automotive industry with Tesla and its electric cars, and who sets out to conquer space with SpaceX and its reusable rockets? “Le Monde” tells the story of the man who wants to make America dream again.
It is hot, this Friday in July 2001, in the rocky mountains of Utah, north of Salt Lake City, when Jim Cantrell receives a call from a stranger: the man claims to have made his fortune thanks to the Internet, declares straight away that he wants to launch a mission to Mars and that he intends, for that, to buy rockets in Russia. He proposes to jump in his private plane to meet Jim at his home.
The latter, an aeronautical engineer, former employee of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES), knows the Russians well having worked with them between 1989 and 1992 as part of a Franco-Soviet program on Mars. But in this still troubled post-Cold War period, the phone call seemed really weird to him and he preferred to remain cautious. “I didn’t know this guy, so I arranged to meet him the following Sunday in the secure area of the Salt Lake City airport. At least I was sure he wouldn’t carry a weapon ”, Cantrell recalls.
It is a young man with the appearance of a boy of 1.88 meters, in a T-shirt, who appears, thin lips, pointed nose, eyes a little low. He is 30 years old, with a strong South African accent, made his fortune with PayPal, a pioneer in secure payment on the Internet. His name is Elon Musk.
Jim Cantrell listens attentively to his interlocutor with the downright extravagant project. Code name of the mission: “Mars Oasis”. Objective: to ship plants to the Red Planet to create a breathable atmosphere and make it habitable. And, of course, you also need a rocket … No doubt excited by what Musk tells him, Jim Cantrell ends up agreeing to accompany him to Russia with a third sidekick, Michael Griffin, who will become, in 2005, boss of NASA , the US space agency. The Russians dismiss the young man without taking gloves. “I translated the exchanges. They didn’t take Musk seriously. He was too poorly dressed, with his T-shirt, no tie. They had built their missiles during the Cold War and saw this American kid who wanted to buy them for them with money he probably didn’t have. This guy wanted to make humanity a multiplanetary species, that pissed them off ”, Cantrell remembers.
The team takes the plane, from Moscow to New York, in economy class. After take off, Griffin and Cantrell sip their whiskey while Musk furiously taps on his computer. “What the hell is that idiot doing?” “, Griffin asks, nudging his neighbor. “He must prepare to save the world”, Cantrell answers. “Musk, who’s heard it all, turns around and explodes, ‘Fuck you guys. I believe that we can build this rocket ourselves ””, says the former CNES.
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