WASHINGTON—American entrepreneur and space tycoon Elon Musk called for an increase in funding to NASA, and said that the United States needs to reignite the public’s enthusiasm for space by building a base on the Moon and sending people to Mars.
Elon Musk is best known for being the co-founder and CEO of electric car company Tesla. He is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, the largest privately-funded space company in the world, which has successfully launched, orbited, and recovered numerous spacecraft since the company’s founding in 2002.
Musk delivered the keynote speech at the 2017 International Space Station Research & Development conference (ISS R&D) on Wednesday to hundreds of space industry professionals, scientists, and NASA members and astronauts. While praising the work and achievement of the International Space Station, Musk said that United States must aim higher to advance to the next stage of space exploration.
“If you want to get the public real fired up [about the space program] we have to get a base on the moon,” said Elon Musk, “we need to build a permanent presence on the moon then bring people to Mars and beyond.”
The successes of SpaceX in conducting commercial space launches in recent years have largely overshadowed the official U.S. space agency NASA, which has suffered from years of limited funding and lack of public enthusiasm, especially after its space shuttle program ended in 2011.
