Commentary
-
Our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions on complex topics.
You know, great entrepreneurship doesn’t always start out being successful. It starts out with a big vision, a lot of courage, really hard work, and a willingness to learn.
If you go back and you watch Henry Ford, for example, from the time he built his first racing car, to the time he perfected mass production, and both the Model T and then the Model A, there were lots of innovations, there were lots of experiments. There were a lot of things that didn’t quite work. Thomas Edison once said that there were 49,000 experiments to get the electric light. And then at one point, one of his staff said to him, you realize we’ve failed 37,000 times and he said, no, we have successfully eliminated 37,000 possibilities.
Now, that willingness to experiment, to learn from your mistakes, and to keep trying, in our generation, may be personified as much as anything by the kinds of things we just saw with SpaceX.
Elon Musk created a company of enormous capability. He became the first person to invent a rocket which could launched, go to orbit, come back, and be recovered. Nowadays, the Falcon 9 rocket is, in fact, the most successful carrier of satellites into space. And SpaceX by itself launches more satellites than all of Communist China. He now is working on his real dream. And in his mind, as successful as Falcon 9 has been, that was a stepping stone, it was the beginning of learning. So he’s now put the other 36 rocket engines into what they call the Starship. And they call it the Starship, because it’s designed not to take something into orbit. It’s designed to go first to the moon and then to Mars. Now, they just tried their first big Starship launch. And it was terrific for a couple of minutes and then it blew up.
Musk wasn’t bothered by it, as a true entrepreneur, he had said before the launch, you know, there are at least a million ways this thing can fail. And he said after launch, this will give us a lot of data by which we can learn. The same thing, by the way, had happened with Falcon 9 which blew up several times. And when they were first starting to build it, and they would sit down, they would examine what went wrong, try to figure out the answers, go back and try it again.
In another month or so, they’ll be launching and they’ve designed a Starship factory, which is planning, ultimately, to produce a Starship every three days. Now think about that. A gigantic rocket capable of going to the moon and capable of extended reach going to Mars. Every three days means you’re gonna get something like 120 rockets a year. Nobody’s ever dreamed of doing this. Boeing worked with NASA on what they call the Space Launch System. They’ve built one. They’ve launched it, iit did work, thankfully, because it costs billions and billions of dollars. But it’s gonna take them another year and a half to build the second one. Meanwhile, Elon is going to be dramatically out-producing them. He represents a totally new world of thought about how you get into space. He is literally being Henry Ford. He’s going to mass produce huge rockets that can both get us to the moon, get us to Mars, and carry huge quantities up into Earth orbit and ultimately, I suspect, create a genuine tourism industry on a scale you can’t even imagine today. So entrepreneurship is big dreams, hard work, and a willingness to learn. And Elon Musk personifies it as much as anybody for our generation
-
Biden sees Trump jail time as sole path to reelection
During Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial, his ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, testified that Trump was intimately involved in a scheme to suppress stories about extramarital affairs that could harm his 2016 campaign. Cohen alleged that Trump promised to reimburse him for a $130,000 payment made on Trump’s behalf to adult film actress Stormy Daniels…
-
Lawmakers must remove conditions on US aid to Ukraine
Most Western aid to Ukraine has been allocated only on the condition that it not be used to strike against Russia itself. But since the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, military analysts and foreign policy writers have both cautioned against conditioning aid, warning that Ukraine cannot successfully defend itself unless it is…
-
Pro-Palestine protesters should recognize the evils of Hamas
Protests have sprouted up across America and around the world as the death toll in Gaza continues to climb. Most U.S. protests are peaceful, expressing empathy for Palestinian civilians and supporting calls for a cease-fire. Some journalists, however, have observed antisemitic rhetoric and behavior inside of protest encampments, alarming universities, politicians, and non-profit watchdog groups.…
-
How AI is changing the world
Artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly reshaping numerous sectors, including banking, education, finance and technology. Its impact extends across various industries, including the military sector, where companies are leveraging AI to enhance productivity and streamline operations. Straight Arrow News contributor Newt Gingrich is excited about the future application for artificial intelligence and provides examples of how…
-
Biden’s foreign policy riddled with errors and misfortune
President Biden entered office with a promise to repair the damage inflicted by former President Trump on the international stage. He vowed to prioritize values like democracy and human rights while also aiming to end the “forever wars” in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Yet, some critics argue that U.S. foreign policy has been marked…
Latest Stories
-
Ukraine launches major drone counter-attack on Russian sites
-
Honda will use Formula 1 technology in its upcoming EV lineup
-
‘Fake eyelashes,’ ‘butch body’: Insults fly in congressional hearing
-
Billionaires discuss how to shut down Columbia protests in group chat: Report
-
Congress launches probe of UCLA after violence on campus
Popular Opinions
-
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum.
Latest Opinions
In addition to the facts, we believe it’s vital to hear perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum. We hope these different voices will help you reach your own conclusions.
The opinions published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Latest Commentary
We know it is important to hear from a diverse range of observers on the complex topics we face and believe our commentary partners will help you reach your own conclusions.
The commentaries published in this section are solely those of the contributors and do not reflect the views of Straight Arrow News.
Peter Zeihan
Geopolitical StrategistWill Nigeria become Africa’s first superpower?
Why Putin axed Shoigu
New roles for Russia, North Korea, Iran in global arms trade
Dr. Frank Luntz
Pollster and Political AnalystGen Z debates capitalism vs. socialism, meritocracy vs. equality
‘We want to find common ground’: Gen Z’s stubborn optimism
‘Take the job seriously’: Why Americans are fed up with Congress
Pete Ricketts
U.S. Senator for Nebraska