The enigmatic South African-born entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has announced that he will be constructing a launch facility for space rockets near Cape Town.
Musk made the announcement at a press conference, saying that he believed it was time to ‘give something back’ to the country of his birth.
The facility, which will be built on open ground between the Blikkiesdorp temporary relocation area on the Cape Flats and Cape Town International Airport, will eventually be used to send a manned mission to Mars.
Musk spokesperson Payola Oldsfir said the entrepreneur had agreed to fulfil all of the South African government’s Black Economic Empowerment requirements. Said Oldsfir: ‘It is a complete travesty that only cis-hetero white men have walked on the Moon, and an even bigger tragedy that the vast majority of people killed in space accidents are from this oppressive group. We plan to change this.’
Oldsfir confirmed that Musk was still planning to retire to the Red Planet – chiefly out of nostalgia. Musk had recently confessed to being homesick, she explained, and as Mars was an inhospitable desert completely devoid of any intelligent life, it was the closest environment in the solar system to Musk’s hometown of Pretoria and he was confident of feeling at home there.
There were also rumours that Musk was returning to South Africa at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s bidding, the suggestion being that Ramaphosa had promised to appoint him as the country’s deputy president in 2024. Oldsfir refused to confirm or deny the rumours. This has led to furious speculation that Musk’s return to his home country is not only about launching rockets, but launching a political career.
[Image: SpaceX-Imagery from Pixabay]