Nowhere has the launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy missile received such a strong response as in Russia, writes columnist Bloomberg Leonid Bershidsky.

"The private American company continues to perform technical feats, from which the Russian space industry has receded: first systematic re-use of missiles, now - the successful launch of a missile with 27 engines. The Soviet Union tried to do something similar in the 1960s and early 1970s, "the journalist notes..

Sergey Korolev began developing a super-heavy H-1 missile with 30 engines capable of bringing a 75-ton space station into orbit and, possibly, flying to the Moon, Mars, Venus. Four H-1 test launches were carried out, and all failed. SpaceX coped with a similar task, and now Ilona Mask has the most powerful missile in the world: it is capable of delivering up to 64 tons into orbit, Bershidsky reports..

"Russia's plans to create such a missile capable of flying to the Moon or Mars have not yet been completed, and, of course, they are not fully funded, although the head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Igor Komarov, promised the first launch in 2028. Even in China, an extra-heavy booster rocket is likely to emerge earlier than Russia. But the burning pain is caused precisely by the success of the upstart Mask, "reads the article.

Mask, Bershidsky emphasizes, has a dream, which he described in last year's report: the colonization of Mars. Mask said that this is his only motivation to enrich himself. "Russia really does not have a dreamer who could compare with it," writes the journalist.

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian space program was pragmatically pursued for the sake of money. Using proven technologies, Russia seized the leadership in the market of commercial launches. But SpaceX's perseverance and ingenuity and its success in reducing costs by reusing rockets have made it a likely market leader, perhaps even profitable, "notes columnist Bloomberg.

"Roskosmos acknowledged the threat from SpaceX, which has been waving for years, and is now working on a 20 percent reduction in launch costs and re-use of missile components. But the company Mask is now ahead, and it will not be easy to catch up with it, "the author believes..

"The personal passion of a boom, awkward in society, annoying, reading science fiction, driving an electric vehicle, has made for the assertion of SpaceX leadership more than any state support could do," emphasizes Bershidsky.