Some people even believe that he deserves to be mentioned in the same vein as super-entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. When it comes to the space adventures of American billionaires, the duel between SpaceX founder Musk and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has been the focus of public interest. Kam Ghaffarian, on the other hand, hardly knew anyone outside the scene - even though he has built half a dozen space companies and is the only one of the super-rich sky-strikers who is already making a lot of money with them.

“Kam Ghaffarian started from scratch as an entrepreneur and has become one of the great figures in space travel,” says former Nasa deputy head of science Thomas Zurbuchen, who now works as a professor at ETH Zurich. “I would put him on a par with Elon Musk.” Ghaffarian has a special ability: “He is determined and extremely well connected. I don't know anyone who can deal with government employees so well." My colleagues Claus Hecking and Christoph Seidler portray the space magician in the current SPIEGEL.

Heartfelt

Your Marco Evers

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Picture of the week

The sand so black, the mountain so white: The Italian landscape photographer Ivan Pedretti comes from Sardinia, but he took this picture in the southeast of Iceland. It shows the beach on the Stokksnes peninsula, with the Vestrahorn mountain behind it. Above all, the recording captures part of the magic that many people associate with the volcanic island in the North Atlantic. A jury in London saw it that way and awarded Pedretti the World Nature Photography Award in the landscape category.

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