00:00When you joined SpaceX back in 2002, was this a day like today even on your mind?
00:09Well, no, I didn't think it would be a $2 trillion company. I don't think any of us were looking
00:13that far ahead.
00:14But I think we always thought that, you know, if we were successful, you know, space is the next thing.
00:21And it was really going to be big. But it's exceeded all of our imagination, I think, at this point.
00:29Absolutely. And that's something that we heard echoed by Elon Musk just today.
00:34So you think about your tenure at SpaceX there from 2002. I believe you formally retired from the company in
00:412020.
00:42I mean, talk to us about what that journey looked like, because, I mean, reading the history of SpaceX,
00:47clearly there were a lot of really high highs, a lot of lows, a lot of fits and starts.
00:52Would love to hear about the path to moments such as this one that we're seeing today.
00:58Sure. I mean, almost from the beginning, you know, when I left my previous company, everybody said, you can't do
01:05it.
01:06Like, it's impossible, which, you know, it's like the best backhanded compliment you can get when people are constantly telling
01:13you that what you're doing here is not possible.
01:15And it was hard and we had a lot of failures, but we eventually did do it.
01:19And it's really satisfying to hit all these milestones, you know, making orbit, bring a capsule to the International Space
01:30Station,
01:30landing a rocket, you know, building, you know, global Internet.
01:37And there's new plans coming up that are going to continue to do impossible things.
01:42I am curious about just kind of the experimentation that goes into this.
01:46And obviously, I mean, it's a lot of science, a lot of trial and error.
01:49We've seen a lot of those errors play out, of course, on screen with some of those launches.
01:54But I think back to, you know, some of the stories about this idea of switching from hydrogen to methane,
02:00I guess, you know, forgive my layman's understanding of this,
02:04but I guess a lighter fuel that would allow for those heavier, these heavy rockets that Elon wanted to get
02:10out there into space here.
02:12Is that something you just sketch out on a piece of paper?
02:14Is it something you go into a lab and you do with sort of scale models?
02:18I mean, how do you sort of take that from an idea in your brain to something that is actually
02:22out there in a launch platform and firing up into the sky?
02:26I start with, you know, a sketch pad like this, like sketching things.
02:32And then probably a spreadsheet or a computer program to, you know, refine the idea.
02:41And then, you know, we start building hardware, you know, and heavyweight hardware to start with sometimes.
02:47And then you refine it as we go.
02:49But you want to get in the test as soon as possible because no matter how smart you are, the
02:54world is more complex than you can imagine.
02:56And it's going to be different than you thought.
02:58So you're going to find things that need to be fixed.
03:01And the faster you get in the test and find that out, the better.
03:04Well, I am curious what else is on your sketch pad going forward.
03:08Because I think about your current company that you started, Impulse.
03:11And this idea that, you know, obviously there's still a lot to go with regards to our launch technology.
03:15But everyone's now focused on this idea of our sort of permanent presence in space, whether it's actually on a
03:21planet or in orbits or on the moon or wherever.
03:24And that's going to require a whole new set of vehicles and infrastructure and other things to further that along.
03:30You're one of many companies that seem to think that you've, if not figured it out, can figure this out
03:35sometime soon.
03:35How far along are we?
03:38We're getting there.
03:40So SpaceX gets you to space.
03:43They're pretty much solved getting to space.
03:45And with Starship, they're really going to reduce the cost and increase the amount of cargo that can be taken
03:50to space.
03:51And my company, Impulse Space, is here to take that cargo to other places, to high-energy places like to
03:58the moon, to Mars,
04:01or precisionally move things around and do rendezvous, things like that in space.
04:05That's what we're here for.
04:07And you can see the engines behind me that we've developed and spacecraft that we've developed.
04:11We've got three of them flying right now.
04:14And, you know, space is really starting to take off now, what I call the true space economy.
04:19And we're here to provide the logistics of moving things around in space to supply it.
04:25Well, Tom, I see that earlier this month.
04:27I mean, you think about what you're doing at Impulse Space.
04:29You recently announced a $500 million raise.
04:33And I'd love to hear your thoughts on whether, you know, you think about space, that's all the hype around
04:38this company,
04:39which Elon Musk is now positioning as an AI company, but it's best known for its rockets.
04:44Has that created a halo effect of sorts when, you know, you go out and you're talking to potential investors,
04:50just maybe a more familiarity and an excitement about the space industry than there might have been in the past?
04:58Oh, for sure.
04:59I think, you know, since I started this company, we really see the acceleration of the space economy.
05:04There's, you know, really based on, you know, the baseline of SpaceX making access to space so much easier.
05:10But then once the IPO was announced and Elon started talking about orbital data centers, we just have seen it
05:17really accelerate.
05:18And, you know, there's so much investor confidence right now that, you know, space is very investable at this point
05:25here.
05:25We have a $2 trillion company that just went IPO.
05:28You know, space is really happening now.
05:30It's super exciting.
05:31I am curious.
05:32Do you still talk to him or talk to some of the other folks, executives and engineers and other people
05:37at SpaceX, Tom?
05:39I do.
05:40It's rare that I can get Elon's attention.
05:43Understandable.
05:44But, yeah, this just this morning, we had like a little party here in California with a bunch of early
05:51employees.
05:51It was really fun to see some people.
05:53I haven't seen it in quite a while and watched, you know, on the screen, just like you guys probably
05:57did.
05:58Elon talk and Gwen talk.
05:59And it was amazing.
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