Elon Musk's aerospace company, SpaceX, has established itself in recent years as the main player in the global space industry.
However, far from having been a smooth path, the company initially faced strong criticism from the most important astronauts in history, although it managed to reject these questions with concrete results that today position it as a leader in launches and orbital transport.
The most important criticisms emerged in 2010, in the context of the debate over the decision of the U.S. government to cancel NASA's Constellation program and move towards a model that would incorporate the private sector into the transfer of astronauts.
Criticism against SpaceX
During a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, historic figures such as Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, the first and last person to walk on the Moon, expressed concern about
this change of course.Cernan was one of the most critical and warned of the “lack of experience” of new companies in the sector: “These commercial companies still don't know what they don't know.” His position reflected doubts about the ability of startups to meet safety standards comparable to those of traditional companies such as Boeing or Lockheed Martin
.For his part, Armstrong rejected the general strategy, pointing out that the plan lacked “a backup program” and questioning the viability of new actors achieving the necessary levels of security and compliance.
The criticisms were also reflected in an open letter sent to the Barack Obama administration in April 2010, signed by Armstrong, Jim Lovell
