Speaker 1: I'm here with Elil Mosque.
Speaker 2: They found out off paper and space entrepreneur, electric car entrepreneur,
Speaker 2: and sol a power entrepreneur. So thanks so much for
Speaker 2: joining us, and just a few few questions. Earlier this year,
Speaker 2: you made history with having the first product spacecraft SpaceX's
Speaker 2: Dragon to dot the ISS.
Speaker 1: You must be feeling pretty confident now.
Speaker 3: Well, I feel reasonably good about things, but I don't
Speaker 3: want to be complacent.
Speaker 4: And you know, we definitely want to keep a.
Speaker 3: Piece of the technology progression as rapid as possible. So
Speaker 3: if so, we wanted to do lots of launchers which
Speaker 3: are kind of out bread and butter, and then keep
Speaker 3: pushing the envelope in parallel on new technology.
Speaker 2: Okay, and have you have you identified the causes of
Speaker 2: the anomalies from the October Carbot color flight. You know,
Speaker 2: the there was a little bit of issues with the
Speaker 2: rocket and on what have you?
Speaker 4: Just a scratch, just a pleasure, so it.
Speaker 1: Won't have any impact on the human rated Dragon development.
Speaker 3: No, No, we actually file flight plans. When we filed
Speaker 3: a flight plan, we filed flight pan with zero one
Speaker 3: and two engines out. Okay, so it wasn't even considered
Speaker 3: from from the Air Force and FA standpoint, it wasn't
Speaker 3: actually considered a normally because it was one of the
Speaker 3: prescribed flight plans.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: And beyond the Falcon nine you've got the Falcon Heavy
Speaker 2: rocket waiting in it.
Speaker 3: It was considered a normally but not a failure. Sorry.
Speaker 2: Okay, So you you have the beyond the Falcon nine,
Speaker 2: you've got the Falcon heavy sort of rocket in development
Speaker 2: or waiting in the wings.
Speaker 1: So you know what was that all about? And is
Speaker 1: there really is about a market for it?
Speaker 2: Because satellite seemed to be getting kind of a lot
Speaker 2: smaller these days.
Speaker 3: Well, I think they're getting smaller and bigger, so so
Speaker 3: on the on the on the small side, you've got
Speaker 3: companies like sorry which I used to be an investor
Speaker 3: and until it was required.
Speaker 4: And assimily my work they're doing in small satellites.
Speaker 3: And then on the big side you've got the big
Speaker 3: geosynchroance satellites, where particularly for places that have a limited
Speaker 3: number of geostationary spots, they actually want the satellite to
Speaker 3: be as big as possible. So I think you've got
Speaker 3: this wiification going to both big and too small, but
Speaker 3: probably with fewer.
Speaker 2: Medium okay, and also with the human rated systems. Now,
Speaker 2: I say it's obviously NASO after the retirement the spatial
Speaker 2: natur that's is very keen to get you know, a
Speaker 2: U s S system.
Speaker 1: There funding a lot of a lot of you know
Speaker 1: you and your competitors. So the communic case.
Speaker 2: Are going from no US systems to to several in
Speaker 2: the next few years, you know yourself.
Speaker 4: Grade would be really great.
Speaker 1: Do you think this room enough for all of them?
Speaker 3: I think I think as long as we're making revolutionary
Speaker 3: improvements in space transport, I think there is room for
Speaker 3: for a lot of companies. But but we really need
Speaker 3: to get to rapidit, rapidly completely reusable rockets, just.
Speaker 4: Just as as is the case with aircraft. I mean
Speaker 4: aircraft are rapidly completely reusable.
Speaker 3: I mean, I mean they have a maintenance cycle and everything,
Speaker 3: but basically put fuel and flight again and you can
Speaker 3: land a seven forty seven and take off an hour
Speaker 3: and a half later.
Speaker 4: And you should be able to do that with rockets too, okay.
Speaker 3: And if you do that then the coasts would come
Speaker 3: down to dramatically that I think they could.
Speaker 4: We could find many uses for rockets.
Speaker 2: Okay, and give us an update on the air launch
Speaker 2: structure launch system that was announced last year. You're your
Speaker 2: partner in there, you're gonna do that they root rocket
Speaker 2: launch bit.
Speaker 1: You know what's that all about?
Speaker 2: And where does it kind of fit into your sort
Speaker 2: of sort of family of rockets launches.
Speaker 3: Well, that's that's definitely not one of our main initiatives.
Speaker 3: And I think there's there's likely to be some changes
Speaker 3: in that program, but nothing I could comment on myself, Okay.
Speaker 2: I mean, and you've also dropped hints of a more
Speaker 2: powerful rocket engine undevelopment Raptor MCT. People seem to be
Speaker 2: talking about what does mc T stand for? And and
Speaker 2: is that is that right?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I mean now again it sort of just throw something
Speaker 3: out just for fun, and the.
Speaker 4: I can confirm that the name.
Speaker 3: Of the engine is Raptor okay, And and I'd like
Speaker 3: to announce movies some details about the engine next year.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: But perhaps what's even more interesting is the spaceship that
Speaker 3: that's attached to.
Speaker 2: Okay, and and just them and mc T stand for
Speaker 2: what it can do with Mars or Marsian.
Speaker 3: Or okay, I have to leave a little you know,
Speaker 3: that's show a little leg not all.
Speaker 2: You've also gone a vertical landing system, the Grasshopper in
Speaker 2: development term. How does that again, how does that fit
Speaker 2: into the sort of family of that that's that's the
Speaker 2: reusability of of of.
Speaker 3: Of rockets, right, So the Grasshoppers is kind of a
Speaker 3: test grig and it's intended to help us develop a
Speaker 3: vertical landing cability. Obviously, the rockets can certainly take off vertically,
Speaker 3: no one needs to make them land and so so
Speaker 3: Grasshopper is a very it has very robust landing legs.
Speaker 3: It's it's designed to be able to take you very
Speaker 3: or phenomenal landings. It's it's got a Falcon nine version
Speaker 3: one stage or and combined with the act of the
Speaker 3: more than one d engine that would go on the
Speaker 3: next generation of Pop the Night. So it's sort of
Speaker 3: a hybrid vehicle of past and future technologies. We'll use
Speaker 3: it to to sort of figure out a bunch of things,
Speaker 3: and then next year we'll upgrade to the actual flight
Speaker 3: design of the Falcon Line, the next generation Falcon Line.
Speaker 2: Okay, so is the idea to cover the top stage
Speaker 2: or the whole thing or.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a long term our goal is to recover the
Speaker 3: entire rocket and be able to relaunch the whole thing quickly.
Speaker 1: Okay this year.
Speaker 2: Also if we also say plant Planetry Resources launched, what
Speaker 2: are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1: Did you think asteroid mining is viable? Are you?
Speaker 2: Are they ringing wanting to know prices on deep space
Speaker 2: sort of launch prices.
Speaker 4: Our rockets are standing back.
Speaker 3: I think there's potentially some market for mining asteroids as
Speaker 3: a kind of a refueling station on the way to
Speaker 3: Mars and other places.
Speaker 4: I don't see.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say that there's a case for
Speaker 3: taking say platinum or something that's found in and asteroid
Speaker 3: and bringing back back to it.
Speaker 2: And have you have you seen the the UK sort
Speaker 2: of Skylar Skop space playe project?
Speaker 1: Have you have you? What's your take on breathing?
Speaker 3: Don't know it well enough in the past whenever whenever
Speaker 3: I've done the basic math on having an air breathing stage,
Speaker 3: it doesn't seem to make sense. But I could be
Speaker 3: wrong about that, And you know, I always always like
Speaker 3: to sort of figure out, you know, how I can
Speaker 3: better understand things.
Speaker 4: So but.
Speaker 3: I think it's maybe easier just to increase the size
Speaker 3: of the boots stage than to add any everything stage.
Speaker 2: And you've obviously famously said you want to retire on Mars,
Speaker 2: which fantastic ambition. Is this something that you've got You've
Speaker 2: got a team at s SpaceX actively working on. Are
Speaker 2: they kind of looking at spaceships and habs and what
Speaker 2: have you? Describing the Musk retirement.
Speaker 3: Home right Well, there's no real work going on right
Speaker 3: now in terms of designing Mars habitats. I think we
Speaker 3: need to focus our energies and designing the Marks spaceship first,
Speaker 3: and then that would effectively be the first habitat.
Speaker 2: Okay, And how far away do you do you sort
Speaker 2: of see a Man of Mars mission?
Speaker 1: You know? And who do you think will be will
Speaker 1: be going there?
Speaker 2: Do you think it'll be in the US or China
Speaker 2: or international or commercial mission?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm hopeful that from a space extandpoint, we'll be
Speaker 3: ready to do such a mission in the ten to.
Speaker 4: Fifteen year time break.
Speaker 1: Wow, So.
Speaker 4: We'll see if that occurred.
Speaker 3: And obviously that would be an American you know, it
Speaker 3: may or may not be a government or maybe some
Speaker 3: goverment involvement or no. And I don't know it quite yet,
Speaker 3: but I think SpaceX will be ready and in front
Speaker 3: will take.
Speaker 4: That time grade.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, you've had an exciting year obviously that this year,
Speaker 2: So what can we look forward to in twenty thirteen
Speaker 2: in terms of sort of SpaceX news and accomplishments.
Speaker 3: In twenty thirteen, I'm hopeful we'll be able to demonstrate
Speaker 3: high altitude supersonic left off in a return, so to
Speaker 3: being able to have the stage take off, go supersonic
Speaker 3: and then come back and land propulsively at the launch site.
Speaker 4: Okay, then.
Speaker 3: I hope we'll also demonstrate the farking Heavy towards the
Speaker 3: end of next year, and that will be the most
Speaker 3: powerful vehicle in the world by a factor of two.
Speaker 4: And more than a factor of two. Actually, yeah, so
Speaker 4: that's twenty thirty shun exciting year.
Speaker 1: Okay. How many people now work at sort of SpaceX
Speaker 1: and what a kind of the recruitment plans?
Speaker 2: I get a lot of feedback from we were saying,
Speaker 2: how do we get a job there?
Speaker 4: Well, it's quite difficult for us to employ people that
Speaker 4: don't have a green card because of our u s I,
Speaker 4: our rules.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so my first advice would be do anything you
Speaker 3: can to get a green card. We have been able
Speaker 3: we haven't successful in a few cases with getting permission
Speaker 3: from the US State Department of Defense Department to employ
Speaker 3: non US citizens, but it's very difficult to do that, unfortunately.
Speaker 4: I wish it were easier.
Speaker 2: Okay, And where do you where do you get your
Speaker 2: passion for space from in the first place? Where did
Speaker 2: it kind of start that sort of inkling or that
Speaker 2: you wanted to do to be in this field?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I was always a big a fan
Speaker 3: of science fiction movies and books, and and I always
Speaker 3: thought that we were on our way to on our
Speaker 3: way to becoming a space brewing civilization, just excuse me,
Speaker 3: just to be like the stories that we wanted to
Speaker 3: read about. And then I was disappointed to learn that
Speaker 3: it didn't seem to be happening. And that's why I
Speaker 3: got into That's why I started space X, is to
Speaker 3: sort of make that a reality and not just be
Speaker 3: forever a fiction.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 1: And what do you attribute to the to the success
Speaker 1: of SpaceX so far.
Speaker 2: I mean, the last time you were here, you'd just
Speaker 2: done the launch and that had gone well, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of you'd kind of surprised and were
Speaker 2: pleasantly supplied that a lot of people have said, Wow,
Speaker 2: you know, this is someone who's kind.
Speaker 1: Of seen and done it right first time, and you know,
Speaker 1: we're quite shocked in a way. What do you put
Speaker 1: down to that sort of the success there?
Speaker 3: Well, we're something we're very, very determined to succeed, and
Speaker 3: unfortunately we had just enough money to make it to
Speaker 3: the fourth launch, which which was the one that worked,
Speaker 3: Thank goodness.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, but I think we had a critical
Speaker 4: mass of technical talent.
Speaker 3: And just enough money and the design that was sensible,
Speaker 3: and those were the three ingredients that were resulted in
Speaker 3: success eventually.
Speaker 2: Okay, and you you've always got anunt of different enterprises
Speaker 2: going on at the same time, such as Telsa and
Speaker 2: the solo passer.
Speaker 1: So how do you split your.
Speaker 2: Time and kind of juggle between them, you know, which
Speaker 2: how do you divide your time and the sort of tension.
Speaker 3: Well, I spent my time approximately evenly in between the
Speaker 3: two companies, but although depending upon which company needs me
Speaker 3: the most, I might allocate a bit more time to
Speaker 3: their company at time. So right now I put a
Speaker 3: majority of my time on Tesla, but earlier this year
Speaker 3: was a majority of my time on SPA six.
Speaker 1: Okay, and.
Speaker 2: If you were obviously, you know you're you're in the
Speaker 2: commercial sector. But there's there's sort of a NASA kind
Speaker 2: of beavering away there. What if you if you know,
Speaker 2: if if you were the head of NASA, you know,
Speaker 2: what would be your priorities, what would you what changes
Speaker 2: would you make? And you know, how would use of
Speaker 2: steer space policy for example?
Speaker 3: Well, I think NASA is actually doing a pretty good
Speaker 3: job overall. I mean if they've been a very pro
Speaker 3: commercial space and I really have really nothing but good
Speaker 3: things to say about what else is doing?
Speaker 2: Okay, Another thing that that sort that we mentioned as
Speaker 2: well as Mars is something called hyper loop, which I
Speaker 2: don't know is an aerospace a train system.
Speaker 3: Or you know.
Speaker 4: It's funny.
Speaker 3: It's a sort of a combination of electric and aerospace,
Speaker 3: you know. It's I'd like to publish something before the
Speaker 3: end of the year, hopefully, but I want to make
Speaker 3: sure I bet it with with a few few people
Speaker 3: within SpaceX and Tesla and maybe a few outside people,
Speaker 3: and then that just sort of put it out there
Speaker 3: this is something that I think would be sensible, and
Speaker 3: then and then ask people to add to it and
Speaker 3: modify it, and maybe people have I'm sure people have
Speaker 3: good ideas about making it better and then try to
Speaker 3: come up with some sort of standard design that anyone
Speaker 3: can from it in the world. I think that be
Speaker 3: kind of cool, you know, sort of like an open
Speaker 3: source operating system, like an open source transport system that
Speaker 3: we really really need. Okay, but the basic thought behind
Speaker 3: it is to have something like that that that's a cross.
Speaker 4: Between a rail gun and a concord.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, now some people and actually I sort of like
Speaker 3: saying that because some people are going to be scared
Speaker 3: about that, and some people are like, yes, that's awesome.
Speaker 4: I'm appealing to the second.
Speaker 2: And that would be using kind of a maglev in
Speaker 2: a possibility vacuum.
Speaker 1: To Okay, well we're almost their final question. Man, you
Speaker 1: said you're a big science fiction fact.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I've gotta ask you, what's your favorite fictional spacecraft?
Speaker 4: Oh, fictional spacecraft?
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I have to say that would be
Speaker 3: the one in A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that's
Speaker 3: powered by the improbability drive.
Speaker 1: Fantastic.
Speaker 4: I mean, that thing's awesome. This is the most unexpected things, right,
Speaker 4: So that's.
Speaker 1: Keep in half.
Speaker 2: But the MCT will be powered by the infinite probability
Speaker 2: to train exactly brilliant. It's been fantastic talking to you
Speaker 2: and very much looking forward to hear you later later,
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you,