Why does Trump have full confidence in Elon Musk, the lord and master of the global space sector?
Thrust into politics to support Donald Trump's second presidential bid and now his impending administration, arch-billionaire businessman Elon Musk has once again been crowned the world's richest man in 2024, according to the latest Forbes list, which estimates his fortune at $400 billion.
The unique character who, on 20 January and at the age of 77, will become the 47th president of the United States, admires Elon Musk's personality and leadership skills. That is why he has made him part of his inner circle. It is no coincidence that the Tesla electric car tycoon has contributed more than 250 million dollars to the re-election campaign, that he made the influential Social Network X available to him and advised him on the selection of senior officials for the new Administration and on delicate matters of international relations, it is not known whether he also wants to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal.
The degree of trust that Trump has placed in Elon Musk, 53, is such that the politician has made him a participant in his telephone conversations with heads of state and presidents of government of third countries. The two have shared a table and tablecloth at countless breakfasts, lunches and dinners, and on weekends they meet at the Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida, which Trump bought in 2017 and has turned into an exclusive club for his unconditional and paying partners.
Donald Trump's affection for Elon Musk also has other merits. The billionaire with triple nationality - South African, American and Canadian - on 31 December took the crown of undisputed emperor, lord and master of the global space ecosystem. His achievements have boosted US numbers, with the US leading for the third year in a row in manned and unmanned flights into space, satellite manufacturing and the deployment of mega constellations.
Washington absolutely dominates the orbital launch market by monopolising 59.46 per cent of the world's 259 liftoffs in 2024, an increase of 16.16 per cent over 2023. This was thanks to the Falcon family of rockets from SpaceX, a company that Elon Musk founded in March 2002 - and of which he is the majority shareholder - which has fired 132 Falcon 9 rockets and two Falcon Heavy rockets, totalling 134 liftoffs, 51.74 per cent of the world's total.
A frenetic pace of two or three launches each week
The arch billionaire is the undisputed number one in the global space ecosystem, having been responsible for more than half of all flights that have departed from Earth. Musk has achieved this at the cost of a frenetic weekly rate of launches, 39.58 per cent more than in 2023. Getting two to three rockets off the ground every week is a cadence unseen in the nearly 70 years of the space age, requiring a very high rate of production on rocket and satellite assembly lines, technical expertise and very high quality control.
To give an idea of the expertise of the technicians and managers around Elon Musk, in 2024 alone, SpaceX has in practice managed to carry out the same number of missions to outer space as the total number of missions carried out over 30 years - between April 1981 and May 2011 - by NASA's five space shuttles: Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour.
Of Falcon 9's 132 launches last year, no fewer than 89 were used exclusively to place a total of 1,962 satellites from its Starlink constellation into orbit. The other three US launch services companies had a total of 20 liftoffs, which, added to Elon Musk's 134, brings the US record to 154 flights, five of them manned. With such a volume, the Biden Administration has put Washington at the top of the list of countries with space access capabilities,
According to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, there are already more than 6,850 Starlink spacecraft in service this year, which is the largest satellite network ever deployed and will continue to grow in 2025 and beyond. Thanks to Starlink, more than 4.6 million subscribers worldwide can access broadband internet, according to SpaceX's own data.
Far behind the United States is China, its main competitor, with 68 launches, just one more than in 2023. Although such a number is also a record for Beijing, it is less than half of those fired by Elon Musk. Of the number cited, two were manned missions to the Tiangong space station.
Russia's space sector remains stagnant
Moscow remains in third place in terms of the number of launches, but far, far behind Washington and Beijing. The industrial, economic and financial drain of its illegal invasion of Ukraine has taken its toll on the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, which has only managed 17 launches: two of the new Angara series and 15 of the veteran Soyuz rocket, two of which were manned launches to the International Space Station.
It was a modernised Soyuz that carried out the 2,000th flight of the Russian rocket model on 25 December. Derived from the R-7 Semiorka intercontinental ballistic missile, it has been in service with numerous improvements since 4 October 1957, when it launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, into orbit.
All other spacefaring nations have fallen far short of the number of launches achieved by Elon Musk. After the United States with 154 launches, China (68) and Russia (17), Japan is in fourth place with seven missions. This is followed by India with five and Iran with four. Europe and North Korea are in last place, with three and one launch respectively, indicating that the Asian powers take space activities very seriously.
Fortunately, failed flights have been few and far between, and none have resulted in loss of life. Of the total 259 orbital launches, only six resulted in complete (5) or partial (3) failures, or 3.09 per cent of the total. In detail, one of the 132 Falcon 9 launch vehicles failed to complete its mission, as did the European Ariane 6 and one Chinese Ariane 6. Three rockets from China, two from Japan, and the single rocket fired by North Korea were complete disasters.
All in all, 2024 was a record year for flights to Earth orbit and beyond, with 259 liftoffs, 37 more than in 2023. The United States absolutely dominates the market, with 59.46 per cent of launches, but Elon Musk alone already has 51.74, or more than half. China has had to settle for 26.25 per cent, Russia 6.56 per cent and Japan 2.70 per cent. None of the countries at the bottom reaches 2 per cent: India stands at 1.93 per cent, followed by Iran (1.54 per cent), Europe (1.16 per cent) and North Korea (0.39 per cent).