Forty-eight years ago, people across the United States huddled around TVs to watch a historic moment: Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon’s surface, the first human to do so.

The Apollo 11 launch came as a result of President Kennedy’s challenge to explore the unknown. He believed the key to our future on Earth could be found outside of our atmosphere. And Armstrong’s successful step onto an extraterrestrial surface was a monumental moment in human history.

This week, the 9 Clouds team joined millions of others in offices, bars, libraries, college classrooms, and living rooms across the world to experience another one of those monumental human moments.

A Truly Human Moment

The SpaceX launch we gathered around to watch captured the world’s attention — just like the Apollo 11 mission. But it’s remarkable how different things are now from 1969.

SpaceX isn’t the product of a President’s dreams. It’s a privatized operation, propelled by the innovation of Elon Musk.

Space exploration couldn’t possibly have reached this point in private operation without the public research and development done by our world’s governments. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship that’s really “taking off” (?).

Sure, we can joke about the Tesla, and the Hitchhiker’s Guide references, and the Bowie soundtrack playing in the car for all of eternity.

But at the end of the day, humans did this. 

Human hands and human thoughts came together to make this intricate machinery go into space — and (successfully-ish) come back down. 

Because of their ability to recover and reuse their boosters, SpaceX rockets are expected to be far cheaper than any technology currently in use. This means more exploration — at a lower cost — for both government and private operations in the future.

I can’t wait to see what’s next for SpaceX and other private companies entering the space exploration market. I think this opens up amazing opportunities for global connection and global learning like we’ve never seen before.

Passionate about Innovation

We’re not engineering quite at an Elon Musk level, but we’re passionate about innovation here at 9 Clouds. And our team is using this really awesome moment as a reminder about the potential we have when effort is put forth.

It’s really easy to get bogged down by to-do lists and the regularity of our daily lives, but there’s so much possibility outside of what we already know. 

This is why our team values creativity and innovation as much as we do, and why Elon Musk’s Tesla rocket launch means so much to us.

Sure, it’s a little indulgent. A little weird. A little crazy. But it’s also a game-changer.

Don’t let what you know hold you back from trying something unexpected. We’re certainly not.

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