Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell - Sedona 2023

Transcript

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell - Sedona 2023 · Elon Musk Podcast

0:00
Hi everybody and welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast where we
0:03
delve into the world of SpaceX Tesla neurolink and Beyond
0:06
exploring the Extraordinary People in innovations that are
0:09
shaping our future. And in today's episode, we're
0:12
thrilled to bring you a interview, a conversation with
0:14
Gwynne. Shotwell the CEO of SpaceX, she
0:18
talks about the reusable Falcon 9 to the game-changing Starship.
0:22
When has been instrumental in turning elon's ambitious, space
0:25
dreams into reality for over a decade now.
0:29
And today Oh, go into a Insider's.
0:32
Look at the business is SpaceX the engineering Marvels that
0:35
make it all possible and the potential of starlink, the
0:38
satellite constellation is poised to revolutionize Global
0:41
connectivity. So sit back, relax and enjoy
0:44
this conversation with Gwynne. Shotwell, you are the CEO
0:47
SpaceX. You've been there almost since
0:49
the beginning. So this experience and this
0:52
company and what you have achieved really is a national
0:56
story. It's an, it's an American
0:58
success story and so I I think we want to hear more about that.
1:01
I've been told by one of your colleagues that in addition to
1:04
your bio which is in your pamphlet that you are the real
1:08
deal and kick ass. So I want to hear how that
1:11
informed SpaceX is approach to working with the government, and
1:15
frankly, pushing the government. What SpaceX has done is really
1:19
break, open the Monopoly, frankly, on the space industry.
1:25
That was one that the government was Frankly Speaking comfortable
1:29
with and I know this because I worked on the hill in the Senate
1:32
armed services committee and in that old world before you guys
1:35
broke it open. So can you tell us a little bit
1:38
about how it was that SpaceX was able to frankly, convince the
1:42
government to open up, space to competition to give you guys a
1:47
chance and also speak a little bit about Senator McCain's role
1:50
in that because I know that he was instrumental, some of my
1:54
former colleagues, as well. We're instrumental in creating
1:57
the legislation and the opportunities.
2:00
Hand-in-hand with your company. So that was a lot.
2:03
We'll definitely forget pieces of that question so poke me if I
2:07
don't worry, don't scratch all of them.
2:09
Just indulge me for 60 seconds. For those of you that don't know
2:13
about SpaceX or what we do, I'm not so egotistical to think that
2:17
everybody on the planet knows what we're doing.
2:18
So I'll just a quick summary. So, we've been in business for
2:21
almost 21 years. In fact, the 21st year
2:24
anniversary, I think it's like this month and we were founded
2:28
by Elon last month. Ask my boss of nearly 21 years
2:32
to do really one thing with one fundamental purpose.
2:35
And that was to build a capability, that would allow
2:39
Humanity to live on other planets.
2:42
And I do remember, very clearly when I was interviewing for my,
2:46
for this job, when he was talking about Humanity, living
2:49
on other planets, and I was like, sounds a little cuckoo, is
2:52
that do we? Okay, but I was really just
2:55
there to sell launch Vehicles, which I was very comfortable
2:57
with but candidly in 21 or so years that I've been at SpaceX,
3:02
I really have come to believe very strongly.
3:06
That is an incredibly important goal even though it sounded
3:09
crazy 20 years ago. And maybe it sounds crazy to
3:12
some people even today. But I think it's incredibly
3:14
important for the future of humanity.
3:17
Just to have the option to be on more than one plan.
3:20
I'm not a doom and gloom person by any stretch.
3:23
But optionality is like, the best way to have risk
3:27
management. So it just feels like living
3:29
Being able to live on other planets is a fundamental risk
3:32
management strategy for the human race.
3:35
So if we are to build capability to go to other planets and live
3:40
on other planets, what do we need to do?
3:41
We need to have launch capability.
3:43
We need the transportation systems that will allow us to do
3:47
that. Thus, we have the Falcon program
3:50
launch vehicle program. So what else do you need?
3:53
You need to be able to get people to orbit and frankly
3:56
land. So we have the Dragon program
3:59
which we've had Extraordinary partnership with NASA on getting
4:03
astronauts and cargo to low earth orbit and return the
4:07
return pieces interesting for Dragon for sure.
4:10
But that was something that has been done before.
4:13
Basically returning people from space what had not really been
4:16
done before. At least in the way that we have
4:18
selected to do it, is to bring the rocket component, the first
4:22
stage of the rocket back to land, and let me tell you why
4:26
that's really important. If you want to take people to
4:29
Another planet and you want a real settlement there you have
4:34
to go and come back. There has to be this
4:37
communication between Mars or somewhere more, interesting and
4:41
Earth. And so you have to be able to
4:43
land the Rockets and the shuttle was capable of Landing, but it
4:46
was very complex and it was not capable of landing and being
4:49
able to re fly immediately. The rapid and full reuse is
4:55
incredibly important to be able to get people this communication
4:58
of settlements. Earth and other planets.
5:01
Otherwise, it's a one-way trip. And if many of us hubbub, we
5:06
prefer that there is a one-way trip option for some of our
5:09
neighbors or people, we want that, but but I think really, to
5:14
Advanced civilization, you really need to be able to go
5:17
back and forth. So we think about what today
5:20
would be like. What would the world be like
5:22
Society? Be like, what would our
5:23
perspectives be like if airplanes were one use only?
5:28
I don't even mean. Ona to Los Angeles and back to
5:31
Sedona. Sedona De Los Angeles and you
5:33
toss the airplane. Like we would not be coming to
5:36
Sedona for this forum. Many of us wouldn't be going to
5:39
Los Angeles or New York or wherever we go reuse rapid.
5:43
Reusability is key to transportation services and
5:47
transportation services are needed to go to other planets.
5:49
Okay, so this I lied this was not one minute, okay, it's
5:53
great. So here's how the okay, okay,
5:55
but then the Advance on Falcon is Starship and we had this
5:58
extraordinary launch. Three weeks ago or so.
6:01
And it was very interesting Lee divided although I should not
6:04
have been surprised was massive failure.
6:06
Versus a massive success candidate was somewhere right in
6:09
the middle, add them together and divide by two.
6:12
Right? We certainly got further than we
6:14
thought we would, which was great.
6:17
We there was a strong chance that we would actually take down
6:19
the tower then we'd be grounded for a year two, we rebuilt the
6:22
launch Tower. So Alana and I were both quite
6:25
pleased even though many of the engineers working the program,
6:27
or a little little sad. I was jumping for joy.
6:29
Oi. So the deal was Starship is both
6:32
the first stage like Falcon reusable.
6:34
And the second stage Starship rapidly reusable right now.
6:38
We don't reuse the second state recover or reuse the second
6:41
stage on Falcon. So that's a selkin dragon.
6:44
Getting people to orbit a back Starship full and Rapid reuse.
6:48
And then the final piece to this particular puzzle at this moment
6:52
or technology puzzle is Starling Global Communications
6:56
capability. There is a lot of reasons why.
6:59
A sex doing Starlight makes a huge amount of sense. 11, really
7:04
key reason is that the addressable Market or the market
7:08
for Global Broadband is on the order of a trillion dollars a
7:11
year. Even if we were to capture a
7:13
very tiny part of it, 3 percent, Thirty billion dollars a year of
7:18
business the rocket business. That's not more than six or
7:22
seven billion dollars a year. Maybe eight billion dollars a
7:24
year and so the financial benefits of having that gigantic
7:29
Market will help SpaceX fund or technology-driven approach to
7:34
moving people to other planets. So that's SpaceX in a nutshell.
7:39
Okay, so let's go. Yes.
7:41
Now we go back home and I'll company really path-breaking, as
7:44
I said, you have achieved so much, we could not have
7:47
imagined. We are closer to getting to
7:50
Mars, frankly because of everything that you and you on
7:53
him, can you talk to us though? Because it didn't.
7:56
It wasn't obvious that it was going to happen.
7:59
Right there. You had the US government.
8:01
Very risk-averse, talk about probably that one of the areas
8:05
where they're most risk of vs. Space.
8:07
It's also one of the areas where we've had yes, we've had
8:10
commercial satellites etcetera, but largely the government is
8:14
still the dominant player, controls the space of space.
8:18
And so you guys barged in essentially, obviously very much
8:23
Leverage. The Power of Congress to open
8:27
the door to competition. Can you talk a little bit about
8:30
that and maybe throw in a John McCain story.
8:32
Yes, and I have a number of John McCain's carries actually SpaceX
8:36
there there. Two key factors in our ability
8:39
to have broken in to this business.
8:42
One was NASA, we would not be the company we are today.
8:46
Had NASA, not partnered with SpaceX.
8:48
Given us a space act agreement in 2006 to help us build the
8:52
Falcon 9 and the dragon capability, which is now
8:55
servicing the International Space Station with both cargo
8:58
science and crew. So NASA was incredibly important
9:01
to this and there were others in the government that were also
9:05
incredibly important and John Cain was certainly one of them
9:09
more for sure, on the dod side, the NASA side but Senator McCain
9:14
was Visionary in looking at the state of the launch industry in
9:19
time frame, 10, 15 years ago, saying we fundamentally are
9:23
relying on one provider United launch Alliance which is to a
9:27
joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed huge history of very
9:30
successful launch programs but now it's a joint venture.
9:34
So it's one company so it's fundamentally a monopolist.
9:37
Each provider one of the system's.
9:40
The atlas systems relies on Russian rocket engines for
9:44
launch, I was going to ask you about.
9:45
Yep. So even if you say okay, we did
9:48
have duality of launch. Competition is great.
9:50
By the way, we are firm Believers in competition, as was
9:53
John McCain, all John really focused on was just opening up a
9:57
crap for a company to break through to compete, not to win.
10:01
No guaranteed launches, no guaranteed money.
10:03
You have to earn your keep basically and so fast.
10:07
Word today. What if the only vehicles that
10:11
are flying are incredibly critical National Security space
10:15
payloads that are going to help us win.
10:17
Conflicts around the globe, were powered by Russian engines, we'd
10:21
be screwed. And Senator McCain had the
10:24
vision to say this is not right, this is not right.
10:28
We should not be flying National Security space missions on
10:30
vehicles, powered by Russian engines, kudos to him.
10:33
And that was just one small piece of it, he was fighting the
10:36
fight. To ensure that Innovation would
10:39
be allowed in government, operate, government, operations,
10:43
and programs. He was very much a believer that
10:46
you wanted to eliminate waste Fraud and Abuse.
10:48
And one way to do that, of course, would be to incite to
10:51
provide competition, incentives for competition.
10:53
Absolutely. Now, let's talk about today.
10:56
Then obviously the Russian rocket.
10:58
We've moved away from the Russian rocket.
11:00
I don't think entirely, we're still making a little bit of.
11:03
We still have a little bit of ways to go, that of course, was
11:07
Acetate adore. It made it was made obvious to
11:09
the World by the 2014 invasion of Ukraine by the Russian
11:14
government at that point, people started pushing for it but it
11:17
took a long time. Again, the inertia of the US
11:19
government today, where do you see the need for more
11:24
competition? Where do you see, where do you
11:26
see that the government is falling short in terms of
11:28
fostering, your efforts and competition writ large?
11:33
So I think we need to think Think about reforming.
11:39
And I know the senator was a reformer for sure, and I think
11:42
we really need to sit down and get very specific.
11:45
We have a system that prefers for the government customers to
11:49
be in control as opposed to stepping back surveying.
11:54
What's working? What's great does North Face?
11:56
Make better gear for mountaineering and for deserts
12:01
than a government contractor, probably.
12:05
It's so we've This system and there are organizations within
12:09
the government that function at only know how to function within
12:12
the system so the organization's themselves aren't terrible.
12:15
The people that are running these organizations aren't
12:17
terrible but we need to really force a rethinking on how we
12:23
procure systems, a couple of examples in addition and what's
12:27
tied to that. By the way, is the regulatory
12:29
element of how you do things for the government.
12:34
Yeah. Okay, so we need to rethink it.
12:36
People are not Bad organizations are not bad.
12:38
They just been put in the system where the belief that the only
12:42
way you can be the best Steward of taxpayer money is two men,
12:48
Own It operate, it management manage it.
12:51
Dictate requirements as opposed to letting a commercial company
12:55
or letting a company that has a commercial idea that will go and
12:59
get investment Capital. Leverage their own operating
13:01
Revenue to build a system like Starling.
13:05
We've got 4,000 It's on orbit. We start, we launched our first
13:09
satellite in, I'm going to get this wrong it, I think 2018 2018
13:15
and now we have four thousand satellites on orbit.
13:17
So in less than five years, we put 4,000 satellites in orbit.
13:22
There is not a government program that could have done
13:26
this. Couldn't, there would be this
13:29
paralysis associated with requirements and how much do you
13:32
need? And I don't want you to blow
13:33
stuff up because that makes it look bad.
13:35
The program office looks bad. When you blow stuff up, which I
13:38
get you try to be great stewards of the taxpayer dollars.
13:41
But blowing stuff up is a very helpful way of learning.
13:44
Take it from me. We have blown a lot of stuff.
13:47
Oh, and thank goodness. We have not heard anybody
13:50
because there are regulations in place to not to not hurt people
13:53
when things blow up. So I'm not opposed to
13:55
regulations but the You Latorre bodies need to figure out how in
13:59
the world. Can you regulate a system like
14:02
falcon or Starling in a way that allows us to spin these designs
14:06
quickly FCC? And by the way, again, not bad
14:10
people not bad organization, these are good Americans, right?
14:13
But the FCC was following their process to license a Ground
14:19
Terminal. The Starling, does anybody have
14:21
Starling in the? Okay, I have five of them.
14:24
There are fantastic. The Ground Terminal determine
14:26
that you put on your house or your roof or your Pole or
14:29
whatever. But the way more of you need
14:30
starlink, there was only like three hands here.
14:33
Way more of you. It's the best broadband internet
14:36
available. So they were licensing a
14:38
terminal that was three Cycles too old.
14:42
So by the time they finish saying, okay, that terminal is
14:44
fine, it's safe, it's fine. We were two cycles ahead and so
14:49
we couldn't deploy the best technology to Americans.
14:53
Because we had to get through this bureaucratic cycle.
14:56
So beer, bureaucracy regulations, need to figure out
14:59
a way to keep up with Innovation or we will lose like, we will
15:04
lose. Can I stop you there?
15:06
You said you couldn't do it in America.
15:07
Could you do it anywhere else in the world?
15:10
Look at China? China wants to build starlink,
15:12
to, in fact, they called their constellation starnet and it
15:17
looks similar. Shockingly, similar a touring.
15:20
It's all really flattering as you have to public what you're
15:22
doing. I'm Pretty sure that their
15:23
regulatory system is not going to be two cycles behind on their
15:26
user terminals because it's a whole of nation approach.
15:31
China has a whole of nation approach the United States.
15:34
Still has a whole of government whole of Industry approach and I
15:38
think the key to commanding the position that I believe, we all
15:43
want to have is to figure out how to bring the coal of nation
15:47
approach to the United States. That's what we should be doing
15:50
as Americans. That's a great point.
15:51
We are stuck. And feeling our way, towards
15:54
something, like an industrial policy or something.
15:56
Like a way to Foster competition.
15:59
I wonder since we mentioned Russia and China, can you talk a
16:03
little bit about how we're doing in the space competition?
16:05
And also by the way, I want to really again, thank you for
16:09
starlink because many people know Starling now because of the
16:13
basic internet service that you are providing for Ukraine.
16:17
That is a wonderful I consider patriotic Mission.
16:21
If you will And it's keeping the hospital's powered.
16:24
It's keeping ukrainians and touch and informing us and
16:27
obviously helping them also with their effort to reclaim their
16:30
sovereignty. So thank you for that.
16:33
So, moving on to the competition.
16:35
So now we have the Russians and the Chinese in space.
16:37
We were used to being the in the Forefront, with the Russians, as
16:41
the nearest competitor that is changing.
16:44
Now, we have China. We of course, have India, right
16:47
behind and some of our allies and partners, as well.
16:50
Can you talk about how the space competition is?
16:53
Then and and what you would like to see the US government do to
16:57
help us industry. Compete better.
17:00
So there are, first of all, if you ever dismiss competition,
17:05
you don't want your competition closely, you will get out,
17:09
competed. China is a Powerhouse.
17:12
You might say that. China is behind where we are
17:15
currently in space, but they are on a trajectory that is far more
17:18
accelerated potentially because of the regulations potentially
17:22
because Cuz of the whole of government or the whole of
17:24
nation, kind of approach to it. Candidly Chinese people work
17:28
incredibly hard and they're incredibly dedicated to what
17:31
they do. I'm not sure they're working
17:33
from home unless they're told to so you keep our eyes on China.
17:37
Again, Captain Obvious first thing in the morning as far.
17:40
Now one thing that China does not have they do not have
17:43
reusable Rockets. I believe they will get there
17:45
pretty quickly but we are the only organization that can land
17:50
practically on a dime. And I think that Is a very
17:53
distinguishing factor for us, right.
17:55
Now, by the time they figure out how to fly a falcon 9 like
17:59
vehicle. We will be flying Starship.
18:01
We're both vehicle to first stage and the second stage land
18:04
on a dime. And that will be an incredible
18:06
capability, frankly for Humanity.
18:09
So there's that Russia. Even though they are losing
18:12
their, their kind of dominance in space from a young engineers
18:19
in in, in Russia are not necessarily Going into space
18:24
business, they're going into oil and gas.
18:26
That's where the technology is driving, that's where there's
18:28
money. And so I believe Rush o is
18:31
losing their stronghold on space, but we should not ignore
18:35
them because they do have capabilities in space.
18:38
That that certainly we have been unwilling to Demonstrate.
18:43
So, how much does the? So I worked in the Pentagon and
18:47
in the Obama Administration, responsible for Russia, Ukraine
18:50
Eurasia, the defense relationship, and obviously part
18:53
of that was looking at the threats of looking at space.
18:56
How much does the US government provide you with access to
19:00
intelligence warnings about potentially dangerous things
19:04
that our adversaries might be doing now in space and might be
19:08
planning for a future contingencies.
19:13
When I'm never sure what I can say.
19:15
In a public forum, I tend to zip it, okay.
19:18
But I can't say that there is very good collaboration between
19:22
the intelligence community and SpaceX.
19:24
I'm pretty sure. Now that it's good to know
19:26
because I think back to the days when many of us in the u.s.
19:29
government would travel to China and we would be told don't bring
19:33
your blackberries now, we're talking like 2000s, early 2000,
19:37
don't bring your blackberries, leave them at home and meanwhile
19:40
our business colleagues would be flying to Beijing.
19:42
Jing Shanghai bringing their blackberries and getting all
19:45
their secrets stolen from them by the Chinese.
19:47
So I think the US government has had a tendency over time to be
19:50
more cautious with sharing with the private sector, which isn't
19:54
necessarily always a smart thing.
19:55
So it's good to hear that. There are sharing with you,
19:58
there's another area where oftentimes, we hear potential
20:02
danger for the future, which is space debris, especially in the
20:06
lower Earth orbit. Can you talk about how much you
20:08
worry about that and what if anything, the US, The
20:12
International Community should be doing about that.
20:14
Let me put it give a little bit of context to to the objects in
20:19
orbit and I don't want anything. We all have we're all on the
20:23
same page. Yet terms of our space
20:24
expertise, I'm very far from you.
20:26
I just I know lower Earth orbit. Yep.
20:29
So if there are fifty thousand objects in low earth orbit,
20:34
think about 50,000 people or cars or Earth, that's not a lot
20:41
and do not Misquote me, I am not saying that this is not a risk
20:44
and a concern. I'm just trying to give some
20:45
context here. So he had 50,000 moving objects
20:49
on planet Earth, and you make the shell bigger that 50,000.
20:55
Actually they're even further spread apart, right?
20:57
And then you go to low earth orbit, so that area that she'll
21:01
is even bigger and then you also low earth orbit is anywhere from
21:06
a couple hundred kilometers to six or eight hundred kilometers,
21:09
right? So these objects are not
21:12
Necessarily close together and there there's not like millions
21:16
of them that we worry about in the context of human
21:20
spaceflight. You worry about chips of paint
21:22
for sure. But I just wanted to put some
21:24
context there on the numbers. The risk is that they're going
21:27
fast and they tend to be in something when they have they
21:33
tend to cross. Just the way orbits work.
21:36
You tend to have Crossings and you if two satellites were to
21:40
collide that. Would really be terrible.
21:43
Now, many of the, it's a natural collisions that occur as opposed
21:47
to the ones that are intended. The natural collisions tend to
21:50
occur between a satellite and an expended rocket body.
21:54
Luckily the US government is really trying to get all launch
21:57
vehicle providers. And frankly I think the
21:59
Europeans are as well get your stuff out of space.
22:04
So once you launch stuff, you make sure it comes in a
22:07
reasonable period of time. Burns up don't hurt.
22:09
Anybody on the ground in our case.
22:12
We launched our first stages, they come back, we don't leave
22:15
them anywhere. We don't dump them in the ocean.
22:18
Our second stages, we had designed, the upper stage engine
22:22
of this of our second stage to relight, multiple times.
22:25
So we could do a four-burner, five burn mission for a
22:27
customer. And then still have enough
22:29
propellant and capacity to be able to bring that second stage
22:32
again, back towards Earth. So that we're not junking up
22:35
orbit planes. So organizations should be good
22:39
stewards of the space environment.
22:41
Our starlink Network would be crippled if we had a collision.
22:46
So anyone that says those SpaceX doesn't care about the space
22:50
environment. Look at him junking up, the
22:51
skies with star, like that's stupid.
22:53
How many billions of dollars have we spent on Starling, which
22:56
could go up in a puff of collision call.
22:58
It, we called it earlier when we were going to do the teledesic
23:02
that we SpaceX, but when the community was going to do the
23:05
teledesic system, there was a kind of a prophesize, the
23:10
teledesic winter, These satellites did cross regularly,
23:13
and that would basically hit and create this storm of piece parts
23:19
of satellites. So anyone that spends billions
23:21
of dollars on the system does not want to junk up their orbits
23:24
by having collisions. So we have these autonomous ways
23:27
and satellites to move, we monitor very closely where the
23:30
satellites are but there are some countries and some
23:33
organizations that don't care as much and so there should be
23:35
policies. Put in place everybody you
23:38
should have satellites on orbit that either come back quickly
23:41
go. Oh up for a short period time do
23:43
the science and come back quickly or they should have
23:45
propulsion systems and that's a tough situation because many of
23:49
these microsatellites cubesats. They're great learning tools for
23:53
stem education. There are great ways for
23:55
companies to get on orbit, learn and then create larger and more
23:59
sophisticated satellite. So it's a nice engine.
24:02
So, to speak for the industry, on the other hand, they do pose
24:05
a collision risk. Thank you for that.
24:08
This might be a little bit outside of your area.
24:12
Responsibility. And you may not want to comment
24:14
on this but I'm curious what your perspective is on the space
24:16
station and cooperation with other nations and space.
24:21
So selfishly the space station provides a huge amount of
24:25
revenue for our country or for me my company.
24:29
Nothing like you do get a paycheck, I did get a paycheck.
24:32
Yeah. So I love the space station.
24:34
I love the International Space Station, but if you put that
24:37
crass element aside, we are still working with Russia.
24:41
Shh, on the International Space Station, and I think we saw with
24:47
President Nixon that shielding yourself from a nation and not
24:52
allowing cooperation or dialogue, or working together in
24:56
any way, is not, in my opinion, really.
24:59
A way to ensure Global Security. I do feel like there have to be
25:03
Pathways of communication. And I think the International
25:08
Space Station is really an extraordinary.
25:11
Terry. Example of how maintaining
25:17
Communications with Nations where there are conflicts leaves
25:22
open that path? And I think that's incredibly
25:24
important. Yeah, that's interesting.
25:26
Yeah I think it's there's a Temptation in the government and
25:30
in certain circles to say we shouldn't cooperate with Russia.
25:33
We shouldn't cooperate with other nations that are
25:35
adversaries in space, so it's interesting to hear that.
25:38
And certainly US government has held the line on that despite
25:42
all of this. Sanctions that we have against
25:43
Russia's. It is interesting to hear your
25:45
perspective on that. I we have not much time left.
25:50
I wanted to see if you were willing to talk a little bit
25:53
about Elon musk's relationship with Senator McCain.
25:57
Do you have any stories? You might be willing to share
25:59
with us. I never like to talk for along.
26:04
He is an extraordinary communicator on his own but
26:07
there are some things that I do know.
26:08
I do know that they met and that there appeared to To be an
26:13
incredible connection, both a purpose-driven connection and I
26:18
think they really liked each other as well, it seemed I do,
26:22
know Ilan, was deeply saddened. He was with the senator kind of
26:26
very much towards the end and he was deeply saddened by that like
26:29
Elon doesn't get very emotional often and he was quite emotional
26:34
in that period of time. We have the senator to thank in
26:39
large part to where we are today.
26:42
And I don't know if I can say more than that without guessing
26:45
and I hate guessing. Yeah.
26:46
But I have yes, yeah, yeah. I used to work for Carl Levin
26:49
and he would say, if you don't know, don't tell me, don't make
26:52
stuff up. I think obviously you have done
26:55
a tremendous job, you have been a key to his success.
26:58
You are an engineer, you are the real deal and a badass.
27:04
Can you maybe in the few minutes that we have left, share,
27:08
reflect a little bit upon your experience that you've had now.
27:10
Two decades. Ed's and the success of the
27:12
company and what kind of lessons you've drawn from that just to
27:16
share with the audience. Couple of.
27:20
By the way, I learned from Eli. Every time I get the opportunity
27:23
to chat with them and be with him, I learned from him.
27:26
And so there are many takeaways, Because by the way, Elon is
27:29
SpaceX, right? He has provided the vision.
27:32
He drove us to do what we're doing and he taught us all kind
27:37
of what. So, what did he teach me that?
27:40
There's a couple of seemingly silly things, but still
27:43
incredibly important, things beauty in the office really
27:47
important. And this is one of the areas
27:49
that I feel like, I feel really bad for government employees.
27:53
Many specially in the pentagon's, many government
27:56
offices are not beautiful. They're not inspirational.
27:59
And I think that should be rethought.
28:01
I don't think it has to cost a lot of money for there to be
28:05
Beauty in the office, right? You don't want to work in a
28:07
depressing Place. How do you do extraordinary
28:09
work? You're working in a like a
28:11
dungeon and I know Skiffs have to be dungeon sometimes, but I'm
28:14
just saying Beauty in the office is very important.
28:17
That's not the, that's not the most important thing, but it was
28:19
one of those things that just really stuck out to me.
28:21
We're early on, we're going to spend money on Okay.
28:24
Great start, great question everything.
28:28
This is one of the strengths that the United States has over
28:30
China. Chinese people are not
28:33
culturally comfortable questioning Authority.
28:38
It's going to be that thin thread that we have candidly
28:42
because they're out doing Us in so many other ways.
28:46
Questioning everything. That's what Innovation is,
28:48
right. It's like this thing that we're
28:50
doing this capability isn't as good as it could be.
28:54
It's dumb. It's Antiquated that processes
28:57
silly. We should do it better so you
29:00
question everything. Nothing is sacrosanct, nothing?
29:04
In fact, many times if you hire people from the best schools,
29:09
even though, obviously, we want to hire people from the best
29:11
schools or from schools, where people think you're so smart,
29:14
and you're so good. Us never be wrong, which is
29:18
bullshit right illness wrong. Not very often, by the way, it's
29:22
super irritating. I was not wrong, very awesome.
29:24
But he is wrong on occasion rare and he wants to be questioned.
29:28
He's don't let me go jump off the stupid.
29:30
Cliff please tell me if I'm doing something that's really
29:33
dumb. And so you really need to
29:36
question authority, you need to feel first of all, you better be
29:41
convicted. Like you need to know that
29:42
you're the data shows that you're probably right.
29:45
Eat before you go say you're wrong.
29:49
That's not a yeah. But yet question authority.
29:53
Make sure you are humble. If you scare people or if you
29:57
give vibe that, I'm alright, I'm always right.
30:00
You're never going to get feedback, right?
30:01
So how can you get better if people aren't giving you
30:05
feedback, or you're not getting feedback.
30:07
So I think that's incredibly important SpaceX is a culture of
30:10
feedback. It's very difficult Engineers.
30:11
Generally don't like to communicate, not our strong
30:14
suit, giving feedback is hard, you know, especially giving it
30:18
in a way that it's going to be received properly and then acted
30:21
on you, just offend people. That's not, you know, an
30:25
effective or successful approach, but you have to figure
30:27
out, hey, how did what you do impact me in my ability to work
30:32
well and do great work today. So it's a culture at SpaceX that
30:37
is difficult when you first enter it.
30:39
But incredibly important. I think it sounds very American
30:43
to my years as somebody who has worked in the defense
30:45
establishment for a long time where the military has a culture
30:48
of hot wash, which is a term that they use for going over.
30:53
Over an event. Whether it's a military exercise
30:56
or an actual War campaign, a battle and take picking it
30:59
apart. And finding, even if it went
31:01
really well, what little things could have gone better.
31:05
That kind of thinking is very American, I think and it's great
31:09
to see it in the private sector. Obviously, we need it.
31:12
It's essential in the military and maybe more of the US
31:15
government could use it. So when I we have about a minute
31:18
left, I thank you so much for everything that you've done, but
31:22
your company's done. One, if you have one last word
31:24
to say to the audience, it's yours.
31:27
But we thank you very much for being here with us today.
31:30
Thank you very much, I appreciate it.
31:23
One, if you have one last word to say to the audience, it's
31:26
yours. But we thank you very much for
31:29
being here with us today. Thank you very much, I
31:31
appreciate it.