Elon Musk Said 16 Years Ago SpaceX Has No 'Serious Competition' — He Feels The Same Today

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday expressed discontent at the lack of competition in the field of space exploration.

What Happened: An X account on Sunday shared a snippet of Musk’s interview with the Public Broadcasting Service from 2007 on Sunday. In the video, the anchor posed to Musk who SpaceX’s competition is after naming the different players in the space industry including Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic, Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin, Boeing Co BA, and Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.

“We have no serious competition,” Musk is heard saying in the video.

Musk responded to the interview years later on Sunday to say, “I wish we did.”

Musk had reiterated the same idea in April 2022. Competition, Musk then said, would be better for making life multi-planetary.

Why It Matters: However, for this year, SpaceX is tracking to lift 80% of all mass to orbit, in line with the payload goal Musk announced as early as March this year. The company is also eyeing over 90 launches this year, way higher than the 61 launches it completed in 2022. 

The company is tracking to have as many satellites as double the rest of the Earth ‘probably’ next year, Musk said last month. He added that the company is aiming for 10 Falcon flights in a month by the end of this year and then 12 per month next year.

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