Brand of the Day: SpaceX
Welcome to Brand of the Day, where we pick the brand making headlines and explain what you need to know about why it's in the news.
The private space exploration company SpaceX suffered another setback yesterday after one of its unmanned rockets bound for the International Space Station (ISS) exploded moments after launch.
The Dragon Spacecraft and accompanying Falcon 9 rocket was carrying food and hardware to the ISS when an as yet unknown failure resulted in an explosion which completely destroyed the spacecraft.
The explosion shortly after lift off from Cape Canaveral, Florida marks the third failed cargo mission to the ISS in recent months.
Here’s more about the Space X brand
In June this year, SpaceX announced a competition which challenges companies to design a fast travel hyperloop. The low-pressure passenger pod tube will run between LA and San Francisco using use a railgun to rocket passengers between the two cities at supersonic speeds.
South African-born SpaceX founder, Elon Musk, is worth an estimated $13.7m. He made his first fortune cofounding Paypal. At the age of 12, he created and sold a simple video game set in space called Blastar.
Musk formulated the idea for SpaceX in 2001 with his friend college friend Adeo Ressi while driving from The Hamptons to New York.
Musk taught himself to build rockets by borrowed college textbooks from aerospace consultant, Jim Cantrell, on rocketry and propulsion. In an interview with Esquire magazine Cantrell said: "He devoured those books. He knew everything. He's the smartest guy I've ever met, and he'd been planning to build a rocket all along."
Google provided $1bn of the financing of SpaceX.
