12 Years Ago, Elon Musk Interview About Rockets!!!

I'm here with Elil Mosque.

They found out off paper and space entrepreneur, electric car entrepreneur, and sol a power entrepreneur. So thanks so much for joining us, and just a few few questions. Earlier this year, you made history with having the first product spacecraft SpaceX's Dragon to dot the ISS.

You must be feeling pretty confident now.

Well, I feel reasonably good about things, but I don't want to be complacent.

And you know, we definitely want to keep a.

Piece of the technology progression as rapid as possible. So if so, we wanted to do lots of launchers which are kind of out bread and butter, and then keep pushing the envelope in parallel on new technology.

Okay, and have you have you identified the causes of the anomalies from the October Carbot color flight. You know, the there was a little bit of issues with the rocket and on what have you?

Just a scratch, just a pleasure, so it.

Won't have any impact on the human rated Dragon development.

No, No, we actually file flight plans. When we filed a flight plan, we filed flight pan with zero one and two engines out. Okay, so it wasn't even considered from from the Air Force and FA standpoint, it wasn't actually considered a normally because it was one of the prescribed flight plans.

Okay.

And beyond the Falcon nine you've got the Falcon Heavy rocket waiting in it.

It was considered a normally but not a failure. Sorry.

Okay, So you you have the beyond the Falcon nine, you've got the Falcon heavy sort of rocket in development or waiting in the wings.

So you know what was that all about? And is there really is about a market for it?

Because satellite seemed to be getting kind of a lot smaller these days.

Well, I think they're getting smaller and bigger, so so on the on the on the small side, you've got companies like sorry which I used to be an investor and until it was required.

And assimily my work they're doing in small satellites.

And then on the big side you've got the big geosynchroance satellites, where particularly for places that have a limited number of geostationary spots, they actually want the satellite to be as big as possible. So I think you've got this wiification going to both big and too small, but probably with fewer.

Medium okay, and also with the human rated systems. Now, I say it's obviously NASO after the retirement the spatial natur that's is very keen to get you know, a U s S system.

There funding a lot of a lot of you know you and your competitors. So the communic case.

Are going from no US systems to to several in the next few years, you know yourself.

Grade would be really great.

Do you think this room enough for all of them?

I think I think as long as we're making revolutionary improvements in space transport, I think there is room for for a lot of companies. But but we really need to get to rapidit, rapidly completely reusable rockets, just.

Just as as is the case with aircraft. I mean aircraft are rapidly completely reusable.

I mean, I mean they have a maintenance cycle and everything, but basically put fuel and flight again and you can land a seven forty seven and take off an hour and a half later.

And you should be able to do that with rockets too, okay.

And if you do that then the coasts would come down to dramatically that I think they could.

We could find many uses for rockets.

Okay, and give us an update on the air launch structure launch system that was announced last year. You're your partner in there, you're gonna do that they root rocket launch bit.

You know what's that all about?

And where does it kind of fit into your sort of sort of family of rockets launches.

Well, that's that's definitely not one of our main initiatives. And I think there's there's likely to be some changes in that program, but nothing I could comment on myself, Okay.

I mean, and you've also dropped hints of a more powerful rocket engine undevelopment Raptor MCT. People seem to be talking about what does mc T stand for? And and is that is that right?

You know?

Yeah?

I mean now again it sort of just throw something out just for fun, and the.

I can confirm that the name.

Of the engine is Raptor okay, And and I'd like to announce movies some details about the engine next year.

Okay.

But perhaps what's even more interesting is the spaceship that that's attached to.

Okay, and and just them and mc T stand for what it can do with Mars or Marsian.

Or okay, I have to leave a little you know, that's show a little leg not all.

You've also gone a vertical landing system, the Grasshopper in development term. How does that again, how does that fit into the sort of family of that that's that's the reusability of of of.

Of rockets, right, So the Grasshoppers is kind of a test grig and it's intended to help us develop a vertical landing cability. Obviously, the rockets can certainly take off vertically, no one needs to make them land and so so Grasshopper is a very it has very robust landing legs. It's it's designed to be able to take you very or phenomenal landings. It's it's got a Falcon nine version one stage or and combined with the act of the more than one d engine that would go on the

Okay, so is the idea to cover the top stage or the whole thing or.

Yeah, a long term our goal is to recover the entire rocket and be able to relaunch the whole thing quickly.

Okay this year.

Also if we also say plant Planetry Resources launched, what are your thoughts on that?

Did you think asteroid mining is viable? Are you?

Are they ringing wanting to know prices on deep space sort of launch prices.

Our rockets are standing back.

I think there's potentially some market for mining asteroids as a kind of a refueling station on the way to Mars and other places.

I don't see.

I'm not going to say that there's a case for taking say platinum or something that's found in and asteroid and bringing back back to it.

And have you have you seen the the UK sort of Skylar Skop space playe project?

Have you have you? What's your take on breathing?

Don't know it well enough in the past whenever whenever I've done the basic math on having an air breathing stage, it doesn't seem to make sense. But I could be wrong about that, And you know, I always always like to sort of figure out, you know, how I can better understand things.

So but.

I think it's maybe easier just to increase the size of the boots stage than to add any everything stage.

And you've obviously famously said you want to retire on Mars, which fantastic ambition. Is this something that you've got You've got a team at s SpaceX actively working on. Are they kind of looking at spaceships and habs and what have you? Describing the Musk retirement.

Home right Well, there's no real work going on right now in terms of designing Mars habitats. I think we need to focus our energies and designing the Marks spaceship first, and then that would effectively be the first habitat.

Okay, And how far away do you do you sort of see a Man of Mars mission?

You know? And who do you think will be will be going there?

Do you think it'll be in the US or China or international or commercial mission?

Well, I'm hopeful that from a space extandpoint, we'll be ready to do such a mission in the ten to.

Fifteen year time break.

Wow, So.

We'll see if that occurred.

And obviously that would be an American you know, it may or may not be a government or maybe some goverment involvement or no. And I don't know it quite yet, but I think SpaceX will be ready and in front will take.

That time grade.

Okay, well, you've had an exciting year obviously that this year, So what can we look forward to in twenty thirteen in terms of sort of SpaceX news and accomplishments.

In twenty thirteen, I'm hopeful we'll be able to demonstrate high altitude supersonic left off in a return, so to being able to have the stage take off, go supersonic and then come back and land propulsively at the launch site.

Okay, then.

I hope we'll also demonstrate the farking Heavy towards the end of next year, and that will be the most powerful vehicle in the world by a factor of two.

And more than a factor of two. Actually, yeah, so that's twenty thirty shun exciting year.

Okay. How many people now work at sort of SpaceX and what a kind of the recruitment plans?

I get a lot of feedback from we were saying, how do we get a job there?

Well, it's quite difficult for us to employ people that don't have a green card because of our u s I, our rules.

Yeah, so my first advice would be do anything you can to get a green card. We have been able we haven't successful in a few cases with getting permission from the US State Department of Defense Department to employ non US citizens, but it's very difficult to do that, unfortunately.

I wish it were easier.

Okay, And where do you where do you get your passion for space from in the first place? Where did it kind of start that sort of inkling or that you wanted to do to be in this field?

Well, I mean I was always a big a fan of science fiction movies and books, and and I always thought that we were on our way to on our way to becoming a space brewing civilization, just excuse me, just to be like the stories that we wanted to read about. And then I was disappointed to learn that it didn't seem to be happening. And that's why I got into That's why I started space X, is to sort of make that a reality and not just be forever a fiction.

Okay.

And what do you attribute to the to the success of SpaceX so far.

I mean, the last time you were here, you'd just done the launch and that had gone well, and I think a lot of you'd kind of surprised and were pleasantly supplied that a lot of people have said, Wow, you know, this is someone who's kind.

Of seen and done it right first time, and you know, we're quite shocked in a way. What do you put down to that sort of the success there?

Well, we're something we're very, very determined to succeed, and unfortunately we had just enough money to make it to the fourth launch, which which was the one that worked, Thank goodness.

Yeah, I think, but I think we had a critical mass of technical talent.

And just enough money and the design that was sensible, and those were the three ingredients that were resulted in success eventually.

Okay, and you you've always got anunt of different enterprises going on at the same time, such as Telsa and the solo passer.

So how do you split your.

Time and kind of juggle between them, you know, which how do you divide your time and the sort of tension.

Well, I spent my time approximately evenly in between the two companies, but although depending upon which company needs me the most, I might allocate a bit more time to their company at time. So right now I put a majority of my time on Tesla, but earlier this year was a majority of my time on SPA six.

Okay, and.

If you were obviously, you know you're you're in the commercial sector. But there's there's sort of a NASA kind of beavering away there. What if you if you know, if if you were the head of NASA, you know, what would be your priorities, what would you what changes would you make? And you know, how would use of steer space policy for example?

Well, I think NASA is actually doing a pretty good job overall. I mean if they've been a very pro commercial space and I really have really nothing but good things to say about what else is doing?

Okay, Another thing that that sort that we mentioned as well as Mars is something called hyper loop, which I don't know is an aerospace a train system.

Or you know.

It's funny.

It's a sort of a combination of electric and aerospace,

Between a rail gun and a concord.

Wow.

Yeah, now some people and actually I sort of like saying that because some people are going to be scared about that, and some people are like, yes, that's awesome.

I'm appealing to the second.

And that would be using kind of a maglev in a possibility vacuum.

To Okay, well we're almost their final question. Man, you said you're a big science fiction fact.

Yeah, so I've gotta ask you, what's your favorite fictional spacecraft?

Oh, fictional spacecraft?

Well, you know, I have to say that would be the one in A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that's powered by the improbability drive.

Fantastic.

I mean, that thing's awesome. This is the most unexpected things, right, So that's.

Keep in half.

But the MCT will be powered by the infinite probability to train exactly brilliant. It's been fantastic talking to you and very much looking forward to hear you later later, Thank you, thank you,