A graveyard with failed rocket companies include VolksRocket, AMROC, and Beal Areospace. The reasons why these companies failed were: they didn’t have the technical knowledge needed, they had insufficient capital, or they relied on technologies that didn’t yet exist. SpaceX, however, recruited experienced engineers, had enough capital to afford the loss of several rockets, and was founded in the 21st century. “The design tools, such as solid modeling and finite element analysis software are substantially more powerful than ten years ago, so that’s a clear advantage,” Elon said. “Obviously, most electronics have improved a lot too, except gyroscopes and flight termination systems.”285
After the meetings ended, they concluded it would indeed be possible to build better rockets than those built before. The experts were now convinced that SpaceX was different and wouldn’t end up as yet another failed rocket company. “I essentially led them to a conclusion that they created,” Elon said. “It was sort of a Socratic dialogue on a technical level. The essence of a Socratic dialogue is that people wind up convincing themselves. People are much more willing to change their opinion if you’re not forcing it.”128
Convinced experts from companies like Boeing, TRW, Google, and Microsoft joined SpaceX. “It was a can-do attitude combined with the fact that he knew what he was talking about and was happy to be corrected if he didn’t. You couldn’t say no to it,” an expert said.49
But Cantrell, the expert who had helped Elon from the very beginning, wasn’t convinced. “What separated us, I believe, was his lack of even being able to conceive failure,” he said. “I know this because this is where we parted ways at SpaceX. We got to a point where I could not see it succeeding and walked away. I have 25 years experience building space hardware and he had none at the time. So much for experience.”457
Employee number seven was Gwynne Shotwell, who joined SpaceX in 2002 and is now working as the company’s President and COO. Since the day she asked her mother how an engine worked, she has been interested in technology. “So my mom bought me a book on engines,” she said. “I read it and became really interested in car engines, and gears and differentials.”309 As one of the few women in a primarily male industry, she hasn’t experienced any disadvantages of being a woman. “I did have a little problem during an interview process – but I didn’t get that job because I was a girl – but they were clearly losers, so it is best that I didn’t work for them,” she said. “What counts is how effective you are, not what body parts you happen to possess.”310
SpaceX needed not only experts with years of experience – they also needed young people who didn’t have any limits. If you have years of experience from a company, you may have learned it’s impossible to build cheaper rockets. But if you have no experience, you do not yet know what’s impossible, then it’s much easier to do what everyone else think is impossible. To find these new engineers, SpaceX contacted Stanford University´s aeronautics and astronautics department to get the names of the best students. “We start with that layer – young engineers, young talent, young technicians – who don’t really know what’s impossible,” a SpaceXer said.425
As when Elon founded X.com and Zip2, he didn’t have any practical experience from the industry. Launching rockets as a kid in South Africa wasn’t enough. But the degree in physics included some basic theories he could use, and he was eager to learn what he didn’t know by reading books and through learn by doing. “It is not like I ever worked for Boeing or Lockheed,” Elon said. “But I do have an understanding of how things work in physics and engineering.”60
Elon set out to learn everything he could about rocket technology by asking his employees who were experts in their respective area. “I’d never seen anything like it,” a SpaceXer said. “He was the quickest learner I’ve ever come across. You had this guy who knew everything from a business point of view, but who was also clearly capable of knowing everything from a technical point of view – and the place he was creating was a blank sheet of paper.”49
It took Elon two years to learn what he needed to know about rockets. “I know my rocket inside out and backward,” he said. “I can tell you the heat treating temper of the skin material, where it changes, why we chose that material, the welding technique… down to the gnat’s ass.”288
Henry Ford always said there are no big problems; there are just a lot of little problems. “Ford was just the kinda guy that when something was in the way, he just found a way around it,” Elon said. To solve the problem of why it was so expensive to launch rockets, SpaceX had to break it down into smaller questions.
The first question the SpaceX team had to answer was whether they should build a capsule on the top of a rocket or a new Space Shuttle. Arguing the Space Shuttle should have retired ten years earlier than it did, they came to the conclusion a capsule was the best alternative.53 The idea behind the Space Shuttle might have been sound, but in reality it had several drawbacks. “The Shuttle is just an incredible complex and dangerous machine,” Elon said.365
The Space Shuttle didn’t have an escape module that could save the crew if something went wrong after the launch. As Titanic would never sink, the engineers who constructed the Space Shuttle decided it didn’t need an escape module because it would never fail.350 “It [the Space Shuttle] really is not a good design,” Elon said. “It is something where if anything goes wrong, the crew dies. And that is no good. We were much better off with the Apollo approach [a capsule] where if something went wrong with the booster, you had an escape module.”365 The idea behind an escape module is similar to an ejection seat in a military aircraft. If something happens after the launch, the escape module will make it possible for the astronauts to fly away from the rest of the rocket. It will probably save the crew.
An often-used argument in favor of the Space Shuttle was that it could land wherever you wanted it to land as long as the runway was long enough. The other alternative, a capsule, will just fall into the ocean and then the navy has to search for it with aircraft carriers. But it’s a misconception. A capsule returning from space with a parachute can steer on the way down since the capsule itself has similar properties as a wing. Years before GPS became available, latter capsules from the Apollo program could land within a circle with a radius of 1 mile [2 km]. When you land a capsule, the only factor you can’t control is the wind. To correct for the wind, it’s possible to add a different type of parachute or a propeller. Now you can land with a capsule on the painted numbers on a runway in a similar way as when a skydiver can land with a high accuracy.350
SpaceX’s long-term goal is to land on other planets, such as Mars, thus there’s no point with the Space Shuttle’s wings since there are no runways on Mars. “In space, wings are dumb. You don’t make an aircraft looking like a boat,” Elon said.350 Despite having wings, the Space Shuttle couldn’t really fly. It could only fall with style. When it returned from space, it glided towards the runway without any engines, so it had only one chance to land.
Yet another drawback with the Space Shuttle is that it was designed to be reusable, but in reality, it wasn’t. After each launch, the external tank broke up before impact in the sea and was never recovered. The reusable parts were so difficult to reuse that the cost of the Space Shuttle was four times more compared with an expendable rocket with equivalent payload capability.305