How Elon Started SpaceX

Summary

SpaceX's early years were fraught with challenges, from failed test launches to financial brinks. Elon Musk's vision for Mars colonization led to the creation of 'Mars Oasis' and the pursuit of affordable rocketry. Despite setbacks, including a disastrous trip to Russia for rocket procurement, Musk's perseverance paid off. The successful launch of Falcon 1 marked a turning point, securing a $1.6 billion NASA contract and propelling SpaceX to become a leader in space exploration and innovation.

Takeaways

• 🚀 SpaceX's early days were marked by significant challenges, including failed test launches and financial struggles, highlighting the importance of perseverance.
• 💡 Elon Musk's interest in space travel was the driving force behind SpaceX, which began as a pursuit to reinvigorate interest in Mars colonization.
• 🌱 The 'Mars Oasis' concept aimed to demonstrate the possibility of life on Mars by sending a greenhouse to grow plants, an idea that was part of Musk's broader vision for space exploration.
• 🔍 Musk's initial search for a cost-effective rocket involved various challenges, including a difficult negotiation with Russian suppliers and the realization that inefficiencies in the industry could be addressed.
• 📈 Musk's discovery that only 3% of a rocket's cost came from raw materials led to a new business model for SpaceX, focusing on in-house production and cost reduction.
• 🛰 The development of the Falcon 1 was a bootstrapped effort, with a small team and a limited budget, yet it aimed to deliver small payloads to orbit, a niche in the market that was growing due to smaller telecommunications satellites.
• 🔧 The hiring strategy at SpaceX included a mix of experienced industry veterans and young engineering students, reflecting Musk's approach to innovation and cost-effectiveness.
• 🏭 SpaceX's approach to rocket construction was unique, opting for horizontal assembly and in-house manufacturing of critical parts to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
• 🔥 The first three Falcon 1 launches ended in failure, demonstrating the high-risk nature of space exploration and the technical hurdles SpaceX had to overcome.
• 🎉 The successful fourth launch of Falcon 1 was a turning point for SpaceX, securing the company's position in the aerospace industry and leading to a $1.6 billion NASA contract.
• 🌟 The story of SpaceX is one of resilience and innovation, showing how a combination of vision, risk-taking, and persistence can lead to groundbreaking achievements in space exploration.

Q & A

How old is SpaceX as of the script's reference time?

SpaceX is 20 years old as of the script's reference time.

What significant event in Elon Musk's life was happening in Sydney, Australia in October 2000?

Elon Musk was in Sydney, Australia to watch the Olympic Games with his girlfriend while PayPal was in turmoil back in the U.S.

What was the 'Mars Oasis' project that Elon Musk proposed?

The 'Mars Oasis' project was Elon Musk's idea to send a small greenhouse to Mars to grow plants in Martian soil, aiming to show that life was possible on the red planet and reinvigorate interest in space exploration.

What was the initial reaction of Jim Cantrell when Elon Musk first approached him about SpaceX?

Jim Cantrell initially thought Elon Musk was crazy and was very wary to meet him in person due to Elon's claim of being a billionaire who wanted to save humanity by sending rockets to Mars.

Why did Elon Musk and his team travel to Russia to find a rocket?

They traveled to Russia because after the fall of the Soviet Union, there were thousands of decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could potentially be repurposed as orbital launch vehicles at a lower cost.

What was the outcome of SpaceX's first three Falcon 1 rocket launches?

The first launch ended in an explosion 33 seconds after liftoff due to a corroded bolt. The second launch failed to reach proper orbit due to the rocket wobbling. The third launch also failed when the first stage accelerated into the second stage after separation.

What was the turning point for SpaceX that allowed them to secure the NASA contract?

The turning point was the successful launch of the fourth Falcon 1 rocket, which demonstrated SpaceX's capability to design, build, and launch a liquid-fueled rocket to orbit.

What was the significance of the $1.6 billion NASA contract for SpaceX?

The $1.6 billion NASA contract for 12 supply runs to the International Space Station provided SpaceX with predictable cash flow, allowed them to attract investors and employees, and enabled them to work on bigger projects like the Falcon 9, Dragon capsule, and Starship.

How did Elon Musk's strategy of hiring inexperienced engineering students benefit SpaceX?

Hiring inexperienced engineering students allowed Elon Musk to keep costs low and fostered a culture of innovation without being constrained by traditional industry practices.

What was Elon Musk's approach to dealing with the inefficiencies in the rocket construction process?

Elon Musk aimed to streamline the entire rocket construction process by cutting out inefficient subcontractors and building more in-house, which he discovered could significantly reduce costs.

What was the role of Tom Mueller in the early days of SpaceX?

Tom Mueller joined SpaceX as the first official employee and VP of Propulsion. He was responsible for developing the rocket engines, starting with the Merlin engine, which was crucial for the Falcon 1 rocket.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 The Early Struggles of SpaceX

SpaceX's first two decades were marked by significant challenges. Elon Musk, who had been involved with PayPal, turned his attention to space travel after being ousted from the company. He was inspired by the Mars Society and envisioned 'Mars Oasis,' a greenhouse project on Mars. Musk assembled a team to find a rocket for his ambitions but faced high costs and skepticism. A trip to Russia for a cheaper rocket ended in a vodka-fueled fiasco, with Musk even being spat on during tense negotiations. Despite these setbacks, Musk's vision for a cost-effective rocket persisted.

05:03

🛠 Building SpaceX from the Ground Up

After unsuccessful attempts to purchase a cost-effective rocket, Elon Musk realized he could build rockets more efficiently by streamlining the construction process and cutting out unnecessary subcontractors. He recruited a team of experts, including Tom Mueller, an experienced rocket engineer, and Chris Thompson, an aerospace engineer from Boeing. With a focus on in-house production and a shoestring budget, they began developing the Falcon 1 rocket, designed to carry small payloads to orbit. PayPal's IPO provided additional funding, enabling the租赁 of a large warehouse and further hiring, with an emphasis on fresh engineering talent.

10:07

🌌 The Trials and Tribulations of Launching Falcon 1

SpaceX faced numerous hurdles in finding a launch site and conducting successful tests. Initially considering Vandenberg Air Force Base, delays forced them to refurbish facilities on the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The first launch of Falcon 1 ended in a fire and explosion due to an overlooked corroded bolt. Subsequent launches also failed, with issues such as wobbling and stage separation problems. Despite these failures, the team remained resilient, and their perseverance was evident in their continued efforts and celebrations of each attempt.

15:11

🎉 The Turning Point for SpaceX

The fourth launch of Falcon 1 was a make-or-break moment for SpaceX. With the company on the brink of bankruptcy, the successful launch not only saved SpaceX but also secured a $1.6 billion NASA contract for resupply missions to the International Space Station. This contract provided the financial stability and credibility needed for SpaceX to pursue larger projects, such as the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule. The story of SpaceX is a testament to perseverance, as Musk and his team overcame repeated failures and financial challenges to revolutionize the space industry.

Keywords

💡SpaceX

SpaceX is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and enabling the colonization of Mars. In the video, it represents the central theme of perseverance and innovation in the face of numerous challenges and failures during its early years.

💡Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and the driving force behind its ambitious goals. He is portrayed in the video as a visionary entrepreneur who, despite facing personal setbacks and business challenges, remains committed to advancing space exploration and technology.

💡Perseverance

Perseverance is the continued effort to achieve a goal despite difficulties, obstacles, or failure. The video highlights the perseverance of Elon Musk and SpaceX as they faced repeated launch failures and financial struggles, ultimately leading to their first successful orbital launch.

💡Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy refers to a legal status where a person or company is unable to repay their outstanding debts. In the script, the term is used to describe the precarious financial situation SpaceX faced during its early years, with the company being 'always just around the corner' from bankruptcy.

💡Mars Oasis

The Mars Oasis was Elon Musk's initial idea to send a small greenhouse to Mars to grow plants in Martian soil. The concept aimed to provide concrete evidence of life's possibility on Mars, thereby reigniting interest in space exploration. It is an example of Musk's innovative thinking and his approach to solving complex problems.

💡ICBMs

ICBMs, or intercontinental ballistic missiles, are long-range missiles designed for nuclear strikes. In the video, SpaceX considered repurposing decommissioned ICBMs as orbital launch vehicles due to their design and potential cost-effectiveness, showcasing the company's resourcefulness.

💡Falcon 1

Falcon 1 is the name of the small-payload rocket developed by SpaceX. It was the company's first rocket and a critical step in proving their capabilities. The script details the development and launch attempts of Falcon 1, which faced multiple failures before its successful launch.

💡Inefficiencies

Inefficiencies refer to the lack of effectiveness or productivity in a process or system. The video describes how Elon Musk identified inefficiencies in the traditional cost-plus model of the space industry and sought to eliminate them by streamlining the rocket construction process and reducing reliance on subcontractors.

💡Merlin Engine

The Merlin engine is the name of the rocket engine developed by SpaceX for its Falcon 1 and later Falcon 9 rockets. It represents a key technological achievement for the company, as detailed in the script when the first Merlin engine was ready for testing and later when it was used in successful launches.

💡Kwajalein Atoll

Kwajalein Atoll is a group of islands in the Marshall Islands and was chosen by SpaceX as the launch site for the Falcon 1 rocket. The script describes the challenges and logistics of transporting the rocket to this remote location and the multiple launch attempts that took place there.

💡NASA Contract

The NASA contract mentioned in the video refers to a $1.6 billion agreement for SpaceX to perform 12 supply missions to the International Space Station. Winning this contract was a turning point for SpaceX, providing financial stability and validation of their capabilities in the aerospace industry.

Highlights

SpaceX's early days were marked by numerous challenges including failed test launches and financial struggles.

Elon Musk's interest in space travel and his vision for Mars colonization began with the 'Mars Oasis' idea.

Elon Musk's initial attempts to purchase a rocket involved meetings with French and Russian aerospace companies.

The realization that only 3% of rocket costs came from raw materials led to the decision to build rockets in-house.

SpaceX's innovative approach included building rockets horizontally to reduce costs.

The first official SpaceX employee, Tom Mueller, brought valuable expertise in developing advanced liquid rocket engines.

SpaceX's strategy of hiring young engineering students allowed for cost-effective talent acquisition.

The first three launches of Falcon 1 ended in failure, demonstrating the high-risk nature of space exploration.

A critical moment for SpaceX's survival was the successful fourth launch of Falcon 1, which secured a $1.6 billion NASA contract.

Elon Musk's hands-on approach in recruiting top talent from universities was key to SpaceX's growth.

SpaceX's decision to build a welding workshop for in-house production of rocket parts reflects their commitment to efficiency.

The company's perseverance through multiple launch failures exemplifies the resilience required in the space industry.

The investment from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel was crucial for SpaceX to continue its operations during a financially challenging period.

NASA's openness to awarding a contract to a startup like SpaceX underscores the importance of innovation in the space industry.

The story of SpaceX serves as a powerful lesson in perseverance and the pursuit of ambitious goals.

Transcripts

SpaceX turns 20 years old in a few months, and  Elon has certainly made a lot of progress in  

that time, but big things have small beginnings.  The early days were incredibly difficult for the  

company: test launches kept failing, suppliers  weren’t delivering, and bankruptcy was always just  

around the corner. There was even a group of drunk  Russians who almost ruined everything, but we’ll  

get to that story in a minute. The early history  of SpaceX is a powerful lesson in the importance  

of perseverance, so let’s go back to the year  two thousand and the very beginning of SpaceX.  

It was October, and Elon Musk, who was  serving as the CEO of PayPal at the time,  

was in Sydney, Australia to watch the Olympic  Games with his girlfriend. This wasn’t great  

timing though. PayPal was in turmoil as executives  and investors argued over which direction to take  

the company. This battle came to a head while he  was still 7 thousand miles away from the office,  

and by the time he made it back to Palo Alto, he  was out of a job. Getting fired from PayPal was  

definitely not part of Elon’s plan, but there was  a silver lining. He had always been interested in  

space travel and now that he wasn’t in charge of  a growing company, he could spend as much time  

as he wanted exploring his true passions. It was a  bit of a blessing in disguise, since what he would  

go on to build at SpaceX would be dramatically  more ambitious than PayPal, but it would require  

a ton of work, so he started studying. First,  he joined a space-advocacy non-profit called  

the Mars Society. The organization was filled  with tons of scientists and researchers who were  

obsessed with space travel and the colonization  of Mars in particular. Elon didn’t want to just  

talk about space exploration though, he actually  wanted to do it. So he started pitching an idea  

he called the “Mars Oasis.” His plan was to send  a small greenhouse to Mars that would grow plants  

in Martian soil. Elon believed that if people  saw concrete evidence that life was possible on  

the red planet, it would reinvigorate interest  in space exploration. After we landed a man on  

the moon, and the space race came to a close,  NASA funding fell significantly, and no one was  

seriously working on Mars colonization. So Elon  got to work. He needed a rocket, and not just any  

rocket, a big one. So he assembled a crack team of  experts to help him find the ideal rocket. First,  

he called Adeo Ressi, who was one of his friends  from UPenn back in his college days, but Adeo  

didn’t have any space experience, so Elon called  Jim Cantrell. Cantrell had worked on various  

joint missile defense programs conducted between  America and Russia and was perfect for this job,  

there was only one problem: he thought Elon was  crazy. See, when Cantrell first picked up the  

phone, Elon told him that he was a billionaire,  which he wasn’t yet, who wanted to save humanity  

by sending rockets to Mars. It sounded like the  ravings of a madman, so Cantrell was very wary to  

meet Elon in person. Just to be safe, he insisted  that they meet at the Denver Airport behind the  

security checkpoint, so he could guarantee  that Elon wouldn’t have any weapons on him.  

Fortunately, once they sat down and had a  chance to talk through Elon’s full vision,  

Cantrell was convinced and agreed to help  out. So the three of them flew to Paris,  

where they met with a French aerospace  company to discuss the purchase of a rocket.  

But the only rockets available cost over a hundred  million dollars each. Even though Elon was rich,  

he wasn’t that rich yet. He only had about $30  million dollars which he had made from the sale of  

his first company Zip2, so he had to find another  option. The team then flew from Paris to Moscow  

in hopes of finding a cheaper rocket. After  the fall of the Soviet Union, demilitarization  

treaties required that Russia decommission  thousands of intercontinental ballistic missiles,  

or ICBMs. These were well designed rockets, and  after you removed the nuclear warhead from them,  

they could definitely be used as orbital  launch vehicles. While they were in Russia,  

Elon and his team scheduled meetings with  two separate Russian space organizations.  

They thought it would be easy to buy an old ICBM,  since they were basically just sitting around  

useless at this point, but negotiation with the  Russians turned out to be close to impossible. I  

really enjoyed Adeo’s account of the whole fiasco,  he said: “Then we started having meetings with  

the Russian space program, which is basically  fueled by vodka. We'd all go into this little  

room and every single person had his own bottle  in front of him. They'd toast every two minutes,  

which means twenty or thirty toasts an hour.  'To space!' 'To America!' 'To America in space!'  

I finally looked over at Elon and Jim and they  were passed out on the table. Then I passed out  

myself.” It seemed like a dead-end, but Elon  was willing to do anything to get a deal done.  

He spent hours talking to the Russians just in  order to get them to open up a bit about what they  

actually had in stock. And they weren’t exactly  friendly to his inquiries. During one particularly  

heated exchange, one of the Russians actually spit  on Elon in disgust. But even all those ridiculous  

events in Russia didn’t end negotiations entirely.  For the next meeting, the Russians flew to Los  

Angeles to meet with Elon on his home turf, but  they seemed more interested in partying than doing  

business. They reportedly called him and asked for  $5,000 in cash to go clubbing for the night. Now,  

it’s not exactly easy to withdraw 5 grand from  a bank on a weekend, and ATMs have limits. But  

Elon’s friend Adeo knew someone who worked at the  Mondrian in West Hollywood and kept lots of cash  

on-hand. It must have been a ridiculous favor  to ask someone to borrow thousands of dollars  

from the hotel safe, but it worked. The Russians  were appeased and spent the night partying. For  

their third meeting, Elon was more determined than  ever. It was February of 2002 and at this point,  

Elon had been trying to find a rocket for over  a year with no luck. So he flew to Russia, but  

this time, he brought Mike Griffin. This guy was  a space industry veteran and actually went on to  

lead all of NASA in 2005. Griffin brought a level  of seriousness to the discussions that helped  

move negotiations forward and Elon was finally  able to get a quote. There was only one problem,  

it was still too high. The Russians wanted $8  million dollars for a single rocket. Elon was  

willing to pay the $8 million dollars, but for  that price, he wanted two rockets. The Russians  

held firm to their original pricing and wouldn’t  cut a deal with Elon, so he stormed out of the  

meeting into the freezing Moscow air outside and  took a cab back to the airport. On the flight back  

to America, Elon’s team ordered a round of drinks  to celebrate getting out of Russia alive. But Elon  

wasn’t celebrating, he had his laptop open and was  already thinking about his next step. He started  

building an Excel model for rocket construction  costs, and he found something incredible. Only  

3 percent of the cost of a rocket came from  raw materials like aluminium and copper. There  

were a ton of inefficiencies, most of which could  be eliminated with careful planning. Historically,  

the space industry has operated using a cost-plus  model, which means that the rocket manufacturer  

will total up their costs and then add a profit  margin on top. This leads to perverse incentives  

though, since the higher your costs are, the  higher your profits will be. And governments are  

notoriously bad at demanding lower costs. On that  flight, Elon discovered that if he streamlined the  

entire rocket construction process and cut out  the inefficient subcontractors, he could get  

to orbit for a fraction of the industry-standard  cost. Even though Elon started by planning to go  

straight to Mars, realistically, he had to start  smaller. So he settled on a small-payload rocket  

where he could prove out his ideas before going  bigger. He’d been tracking the industry for years  

and found that, until the 1990s, the vast majority  of launches were transporting large satellites,  

usually for government agencies. Elon couldn’t  afford to build a rocket big enough to compete  

for these types of contracts, at least initially,  but satellites were getting smaller. Increasingly,  

smaller telecommunications satellites were  providing critical connectivity to private  

sector companies and Elon believed that for around  $100 million, he could build a rocket that could  

get those satellites to orbit. That still wasn’t  a ton of money, and a good portion of that was  

going to need to go toward designing the rocket  engine. Luckily, Elon found the perfect partner.  

His name was Tom Mueller, and he’d been obsessed  with building model rockets since his childhood.  

After graduating from the University of Idaho  with a degree in mechanical engineering,  

Mueller moved to California and was hired by TRW.  While there, Mueller developed several advanced  

liquid rocket engines, most notably the TR-106,  which generated 650 thousand pounds of thrust.  

It was a huge achievement, but after  15 years climbing the corporate ladder,  

he was ready for a change. Mueller wanted  to move faster and try out new ideas,  

but TRW employed over 100 thousand people and was  hesitant to take big risks. So Mueller joined a  

group of amature rocket enthusiasts called the  Reaction Research Society. Everyone had a real  

hacker mindset and would drive out to the Mojave  Desert to launch rockets they’d build in their own  

garages. While Mueller was at one of these events,  he met a man named John Garvey. The two hit it off  

immediately and started working together on nights  and weekends on a completely new idea. They called  

the BFR, which, if you follow SpaceX at all, you  probably know what that stands for already. Now we  

don’t know for sure, but rumor has it that the BFR  was the largest amature rocket engine ever built.  

It could generate 12 thousand pounds of thrust,  and it was enough to impress Elon when he saw  

it in person in early 2002. It wasn’t quite strong  enough, but it was close. Elon wanted to deliver a  

half-ton payload to orbit, and needed 80 thousand  pounds of thrust to do it, but he could tell that  

Mueller could deliver if he just had a little  more budget. So Elon made both Mueller and Garvey  

job offers to join SpaceX. Garvey declined, but  Mueller signed on as the first official employee  

and VP of Propulsion. The team wasn’t complete yet  though, Elon would definitely need more talented  

engineers to make his dream a reality, so he  started recruiting an aerospace engineer named  

Chris Thompson to work on the body and structure  of the rocket. Thompson had worked at Boeing  

and was the perfect person for the job, so he  joined SpaceX as employee number 2. This new team  

immediately started planning what would become the  Falcon 1. The design criteria were pretty simple.  

The rocket needed to deliver a half-ton satellite  to orbit and not much else. All the reusability  

stuff you hear about now-a-days was still a long  way away. Just getting off the launchpad in one  

piece would be a big enough challenge, and the  Falcon 1 had to do it on a shoestring budget. This  

was a blessing and a curse though. Obviously it’s  tough to build a big rocket without a big budget,  

even basic materials are extremely expensive  after all. But the SpaceX team was working from  

a blank slate, so they didn’t have any legacy  technology weighing them down and they could  

design completely from first principles.  They still needed a bit more money though.  

Elon’s $30 million wasn’t quite enough. Luckily,  PayPal was just about to go public and Elon  

had held on to a huge stake in the company. In  February of 2002, the IPO went off flawlessly, and  

Elon suddenly had an extra $165 million dollars  to play with, and he wasn’t about to just sit on  

all that cash. He immediately went out and rented  a 30 thousand square foot warehouse in El Segundo,  

California to use as a factory. Hiring was also  top of mind for Elon, so he hired Hans Koenigsmann  

as his VP of Avionics. Before joining SpaceX,  Koenigsmann had worked at Microcosm developing  

low-cost rockets and knew what it took to deliver  quickly without sacrificing on quality. The pieces  

were finally coming together, so Elon registered  SpaceX as a real company on May 6th of 2002.  

To celebrate the occasion, Elon threw a party  with a Mariachi band in what looks like a  

completely unfurnished office. I guess people  don’t need office chairs if they’re dancing.  

With most of the leadership team in place, Elon  began hiring more engineers to help with the  

more technical aspects of rocket development.  And his strategy here was really brilliant,  

he already had some solid industry veterans in  place, so he focused on engineering students with  

zero work experience. And he took a very hands on  approach here, personally calling universities to  

get in contact with the top performing students.  It’s hilarious to imagine getting a personal phone  

call from Elon Musk while you’re sitting in  your dorm room nowadays, but back then, he was  

a complete no-name in the aerospace industry.  Taking chances on young engineering students  

allowed Elon to keep costs low and he extended  this thinking to his entire business. He knew that  

the space industry had been plagued by complex  networks of contractors and subcontractors.  

If SpaceX was going to succeed, they would need to  do things differently. And Elon really didn’t hold  

back when it came to doing things differently.  Nearly all rockets are manufactured vertically.  

But SpaceX actually found that it would be cheaper  to build the entire rocket horizontally instead.  

Now, there was some precedent for this, the  Russians did it this way, but it definitely  

challenged common knowledge here in the States.  But that’s the type of creative thinking you need  

to employ if you’re going to build a rocket with  200 employees instead of 20 thousand. When you’re  

understaffed, the natural reaction is to try  and outsource more of the work to third-party  

contractors, but Elon really tried to do the  opposite. He was constantly trying to bring  

any expensive or time-consuming activity in house  as soon as possible. SpaceX even spent $10 million  

dollars building a welding workshop, just so they  could make more critical rocket parts in-house.  

This strategy served them well, and by early 2003,  the first Merlin engine was ready for testing,  

but they couldn’t just turn it on in the El  Segundo warehouse. There’s always a risk of  

an engine exploding, so you need a big open space  to run a safe test. And you know what they say,  

everything’s bigger in Texas. So SpaceX headed  to McGregor, Texas and set up shop in a defunct  

rocket testing facility. The site was pretty well  equipped and even had a massive concrete tripod  

for mounting rocket engines. The only problem was  that McGregor was 1,400 miles from Los Angeles,  

so every time the SpaceX engineers wanted to run a  test, they had to rent a Hummer and tow the engine  

for days to get there. It wasn’t easy, but it  got the job done. At least most of the time.  

One test was cut short by the United States  Secret Service. They pulled up just as the SpaceX  

team was about to turn on the engine and stopped  the test. It turned out that the Merlin engine,  

which had been mounted on the tripod, was  pointing directly at President Bush’s ranch,  

which wasn’t far from McGregor. They must have  had some pretty good intel to pick up the engine,  

but the incident led the SpaceX team to make  sure to inform the local community before each  

test fire. Even though SpaceX now had a viable  engine testing facility, they still needed a place  

to actually launch the rockets. They initially  looked at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California,  

which would have been great because it’s so close  to the main SpaceX headquarters. But like always,  

there was a problem. A Titan 4 rocket with a $1  billion dollar spy satellite on-board was sitting  

on the launch pad just waiting to get launched.  The schedule for this satellite was constantly  

shifting and until it took off, SpaceX couldn’t do  anything. The Air Force was worried that if SpaceX  

failed, debris from the explosion could damage the  billion-dollar satellite. Elon and his team spent  

six months waiting for the Air Force to clear the  launch site, but eventually they got frustrated  

and started looking for a new option. They had  already scouted a few potential launchpads out  

in the Pacific, and one location stood out in  particular. It was the Kwajalein Atoll in the  

Marshall Islands and it satisfied a lot of key  criteria. It had already been used as a Missile  

Defense Test Site and was close to the equator.  So SpaceX started refurbishing the facilities in  

late 2005 and began to prepare for the launch of  Falcon 1. At this point SpaceX was already a few  

years behind schedule. The original plan was to  launch the first rocket by October of 2003, but  

that didn’t matter to Elon, he was still moving  incredibly fast by industry standards. In early  

2006, the SpaceX team packed up the Falcon 1 and  shipped it to Kwajalein by boat. Once it arrived,  

the engineers completed the final assembly and  were ready to launch. Elon gathered with his team  

on the nearby island of Kwajalein to watch the  launch, and at first, everything went smoothly.  

The first stage Merlin engine ignited and the  rocket lifted off, but just 33 seconds later,  

the engine caught on fire and exploded. Even  though this was the first flight ever, Elon was so  

confident that it would work he had loaded  the rocket with a fully-functioning satellite,  

which crashed through the roof of a storage shed  on the island. After digging through the wreckage,  

engineers found the culprit responsible for  the explosion. It was a single corroded bolt,  

which had been overlooked during inspections.  Even though this launch was a failure, the SpaceX  

team still went out for drinks to celebrate the  milestone. They got back to work pretty quickly  

and just a few weeks later, the team was ready  for launch number two. But traveling to Kwaj  

is not easy. The trip from Los Angeles required a  five hour flight to Hawaii, an overnight layover,  

another flight to the Marshall Islands, and then  a military transport ferry to get to the actual  

atoll. And island life on this tiny military  outpost doesn’t quite compare to Los Angeles.  

Since it’s a military site, there aren’t any  tourists and the island basically only has  

two hotels. The rooms are run down and the  TV only shows military channels. There are  

two bars on the island and I’m sure that after  a few weeks the SpaceX employees basically  

knew everyone on a first-name basis. But what the  island lacks in entertainment, it more than makes  

up for with its beautiful nature. SpaceX employees  would spend their free time going scuba diving and  

exploring the coral reefs. During World War 2,  a German cruiser ship had sunk in the lagoon  

and became a beautiful artificial reef,  perfect for curious SpaceX divers to explore.  

On March 21st, 2007, SpaceX launched their second  Falcon 1 rocket. This time, they were a bit more  

realistic about their odds of success and used a  dummy payload instead of a customer satellite. The  

first and second stages both fired successfully  this time, but about 4 minutes into the flight,  

the rocket started to wobble. The Merlin engine  kept working for another 3 minutes, but ultimately  

failed to push the rocket into a proper orbit.  One year later, SpaceX tried for a third time,  

and again they failed to deliver the rocket to  orbit. The first stage was working perfectly,  

but after it separated from the second stage,  it kept accelerating, which caused it to smash  

into the back of the second stage. This must  have been a crushing defeat for the entire  

SpaceX team. They had been working for years on  this project and just couldn’t get it to work.  

Even worse, the company was now about to run  out of money. Elon knew he was close though,  

and really wanted to get one more launch together,  so he called up his PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel  

and got him to invest $20 million dollars  in the company. Now this might sound like a  

lot of money for most startups, but at SpaceX,  it would only cover a few months of expenses,  

so they had to work quickly. There was a glimmer  of hope on the horizon though… NASA was about to  

award a massive $1.6 billion dollar contract for  12 supply runs to the International Space Station.  

All the usual big names would be competing for  the contract, but NASA was open to giving a  

startup like SpaceX a real shot. This was the  chance that Elon needed to save the company,  

but there was no way he could win the contract  without a successful launch under his belt. There  

was no time to build an entirely new Falcon 1 from  scratch, but SpaceX did have a spare rocket in the  

LA factory. So the team packed up the rocket and  rented a military cargo plane to fly the rocket to  

the launch site. A small group of SpaceX employees  rode in the plane with the rocket, and it’s good  

that they did. As the plane started to descend,  they noticed that dents were starting to form in  

the rocket’s body. The pressure levels inside the  rocket were destabilizing and it could implode at  

any minute. So one of the engineers stepped up to  fix the problem, and in doing so, probably saved  

the entire company. He climbed inside the rocket  and used a wrench to open a valve that equalized  

the pressure. The plane landed safely and the  rocket was still in one piece, so after a few  

minor repairs, SpaceX was ready to launch. This  time around, everything worked perfectly. This  

was Elon’s last chance to keep SpaceX alive and  he’d done it. SpaceX had just become the first  

commercial company in history to design, build,  and launch a liquid-fueled rocket to orbit.  

That fourth launch marked a turning point for  SpaceX. Just a few months later, Elon and his  

brother Kimbal were on a family trip to Disneyland  when Elon received a call. It was NASA. SpaceX  

had just won the $1.6 billion dollar contract.  This changed everything for SpaceX. Even though  

they wouldn’t receive all the money upfront, it  provided predictable cash flow and allowed them to  

attract investors and employees. SpaceX was now a  real space company and they could start working on  

bigger projects like the Falcon 9, Dragon capsule,  and Starship. I love the story of SpaceX because  

it’s all about perseverance. Watching a rocket  that you spent years designing and building go up  

in flames just a few minutes after launch has to  be crushing. But Elon never let that get him down.  

He always found a way to get one more chance,  because he knew what he was building was worth  

fighting for. If you want to learn more about  SpaceX, just drop your email at johncoogan.com  

and please check out this recommended video, the  YouTube algorithm thinks you’ll really like it.