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Scarce original issue of SpaceNews International newspaper from May 12, 2003, twenty-two pages, 10.5 x 14, with a “Profile” article on Elon Musk on page 22, which features the header: “The Six Million Dollar Man: Elon Musk, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Space Exploration Technologies.” The article contains an interview with Musk conducted by SpaceNews editor Lon Rains and staff writer Brian Berger, who ask Musk a series of nine questions, such as:
SN: “Why do you think you will be able to avoid the cost and expense that afflicts all other U.S. rocket programs?”
Musk: “I don't know how those companies work. My approach is to have a very high signal to noise ratio, meaning the number of people who are actually contributing to the development of the rocket vs. managing or pushing paper is very high.”
SN: “What do you think of the tourism market?”
Musk: “It's hard to say. I don't really know about the market for sub-orbital tourist launches. I can only think about what I would do. I might spend $100,000 on a sub-orbital flight, but I don't know how you would offer a flight for that amount of money. Now if you take people to orbit, to a private station or the international space station, I think you could charge a lot of money for that. I would be willing to pay $5 million for something like that and I can think of some friends of mine who would probably do the same. But you can't go through this six-month training stuff. If you could make it a two-week training process and $5 million, I know a lot of people who would sign up.”
SN: “What is your long-term goal for this business?”
Musk: “Our holy grail? I don't want to sound as though we have absurd aspirations, but we would love to build Saturn 6. If it ever comes to the point where we want to go beyond Earth orbit, we will need a heavy lift vehicle like the old Saturn rockets and we would like to build it at a cost that the American taxpayer would find palatable. We want to prove ourselves first with the Falcon and its follow-on, a three-stage geostationary Earth orbit launcher.”
The right side of the first page is stamped “FAA Aeronautical Center Library,” and the address in the bottom left corner indicates that the issue was sent to “Virginia C. Hughes, Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, Dept. of Transportation.” In fine condition, with light wear.
