Musk successfully launched the spaceship,and behind it is a domain name story that is not sold for $1 billion

In recent days, at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the world's largest crewed spacecraft, Dragon, successfully took astronauts into space.

This marks the first time in nine years that astronauts have launched into space from U.S. soil using a crewed spacecraft, since the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011. The team, consisting of astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, embarked on their journey to the International Space Station.

SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, has achieved a significant milestone in the history of human spaceflight, akin to Armstrong's first steps on the moon. As NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stated, this marks the dawn of a new era in human space exploration. Today, SpaceX rocket launches have become a global spectacle, but Elon Musk's business empire has far more in store.

Tesla.com

Tesla, once a little-known company, has evolved into a powerhouse with a market capitalization of $160 billion. Despite its success, Elon Musk spent 13 years wrestling with the domain name, finally acquiring Tesla.com in 2016, which replaced the old domain name, TeslaMotors.com.

In 2018, Musk tweeted that he had spent over a decade and significant effort to acquire Tesla.com at a price of $11 million. This acquisition allowed Tesla to transition its name from Tesla Motors to simply Tesla. In 2014, Tesla also acquired the domain names Tesla.cn/.com.cn, establishing Tesla.cn as the official Chinese website domain.

X.com

In 1999, Musk founded his second company, X.com (his first company, Zip2, was sold to Compaq). X.com was an online financial services company.

In 2000, X.com merged with Peter Thiel's Confinity, ultimately becoming PayPal. Musk was ousted from the company due to internal struggles that same year, and the X.com domain remained with PayPal.

In July 2017, reports surfaced that Musk had repurchased X.com from PayPal. After numerous twists and turns, this premium single-letter domain, X.com, was finally back in Musk's possession.

Prominent domain investors once asked American domain investors on LinkedIn whether Musk would sell X.com, even for $1 billion. Their response was that Musk would not sell X.com at any price.

SPACEX.com

SpaceX, co-founded by Musk, also uses the matching domain SpaceX.com. This strategic choice helps create a seamless connection between the domain name and the brand, fostering a positive interaction between the brand and the domain name, ensuring that users associate the two.

Many large Chinese enterprises have recognized the importance of a unified corporate identity and have put this into practice, achieving excellent results. Examples include Taobao's domain taobao.com, Youku's domain youku.com, Baidu's domain baidu.com, Huawei's domain huawei.com, and Loupan's domain loupan.com.

For a visionary like Musk, whether it's space exploration or premium domain names, the future promises to bring us unique surprises!