Elon Musk’s Motives for SpaceX Creation and Influence
Entrepreneur Elon Musk founded SpaceX intending to change the aerospace sector and make inexpensive space travel a reality. Elon had various reasons for starting the company, but the major one was to lower the cost of space travel and revolutionize the aerospace industry. Other goals included expanding life to other planets and responding to existential dangers like asteroids that may wipe out civilization (Sheetz, 2018). Elon Musk’s motivations had a favorable influence on the choices he made while starting the business. Musk’s choices would decide whether or not his business would succeed or eventually collapse.
Musk’s Strengths and Weaknesses in Creating SpaceX
In light of Elon’s goals, skills, aspirations, and experiences, he faced obstacles and had advantages when developing the SpaceX Company. Elon Musk’s strong work ethic has been important in the development of SpaceX. Instead of focusing on the project’s realization, Musk focuses on problem-solving. He begins by solving one issue before proceeding on to the next and this cannot be accomplished if professional ethics do not align with the objective (Jones et al., 2020). Furthermore, Musk concentrates on addressing huge problems and feels that conquering mars provides a plan B getaway for humankind if planet earth cannot maintain life (Sheetz, 2018). Musk experienced weakness in creating SpaceX since the company’s limitation is that its success hinges on its ability to launch satellites. The rising cost of raw materials is another major concern. Additionally, there is competition from formidable rivals like NASA, Russian aerospace enterprises, and Boeing.
Difference between SpaceX and Other Companies
SpaceX, run by Elon Musk, differs from established aerospace firms in several ways. When launching a spacecraft into orbit, numerous space businesses typically work together to accomplish a single goal. Traditional businesses create their products for years before building and releasing them. SpaceX company does not do this; instead, it creates simple things to construct, makes them, launches them, observes how they perform, and then substitutes them with improved ones (Sheetz, 2018). The initial individually financed firm to effectively develop and deploy an orbital spacecraft and the first to contact a remotely operated space station in space was SpaceX.
Adopting Elements of SpaceX’s Model
Different space corporations employ various strategies to accomplish their objectives and outperform rivals. Vertical integration is a strategy used by SpaceX Company to acquire control over its supply chain and increase profit margins (Jones et al., 2020). This integration allowed SpaceX to manufacture its launching gear and software, improving its understanding of its products and supply chain and cutting the cost of each launch (Sheetz, 2018). Since they had previously diversified their distribution network to several vendors, other space rivals could not achieve vertical integration, considering they were producing a profit and cost margin. Rising inflation costs for every launch were the outcome, and the impacted businesses could not recover from them swiftly.
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin
With the launch of Blue Origin, the race to cut the cost of space exploration has become even more intense. The cost of building a spacecraft is nearly equal to that of space exploration; this cost disparity is caused by the fact that spacecraft cannot be reused after launch (Marshall, 2022). Bezos is altering this pattern, though, since Blue Origin made history by being the first corporation to launch a spaceship into space, descend to Earth, and repeat the procedure. The Blue Origin company will benefit from lower operational costs of up to 90% as opposed to existing space adventures because this achievement permits vessel re-usability (Marshall, 2022). It will be difficult for other businesses to contend with Bezos’ space enterprise if they cannot adopt technology that enables spaceships to return to Earth.
References
Jones, G., Schilling, M., & Hill, C. (2020). Strategic management theory: An integrated approach (13th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Marshall, A. (2022). The public lament of Jeff Bezos’s 2021 space jaunts. PSAKU International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 11(2), 174-192.
Sheetz, M. (2018). Latest SpaceX valuation shows ‘an unlimited amount of funding’ available in private markets. CNBC.