2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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created_at: '2012-11-03T06:25:55.000Z'
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title: Now 0-for-3, SpaceX's Elon Musk Vows to Make Orbit (2008)
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url: http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/musk_qa
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author: 6ren
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points: 73
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 40
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1351923955
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_6ren
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- story_4736061
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objectID: '4736061'
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2018-06-08 12:05:27 +00:00
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year: 2008
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2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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[![](https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/archive/images/article/full/2008/08/elon_musk_630px.jpg)](https://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/#)
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Elon Musk
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[briansolis/flickr](http://flickr.com/photos/briansolis/2685130533/)
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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The third time was definitely not a charm for SpaceX.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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The spaceflight company run by PayPal founder Elon Musk suffered its
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third high-profile mishap Saturday when an undisclosed problem caused a
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rocket launch to fail. The light-lift Falcon 1 was lost after its two
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stages failed to
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separate during the launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in the central
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Pacific Ocean.
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Also lost were a Department of Defense satellite, two NASA satellites
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and the ashes of 208 people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper and James
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Doohan, the actor who played Scotty in the original Star Trek television
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show, [according to The New York
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Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/science/space/03launchweb.html?ref=science).
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Wired.com spoke with Musk about SpaceX's string of setbacks, the power
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of patience and the future of privately funded spaceflight.
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**Wired.com:** What happened up there Saturday?
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**Elon Musk:** We're not quite ready to release details on the initial
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investigation yet, but we should do it very soon. We think we have a
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very good idea but I don't want to get ahead of ourselves and then be
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wrong. We definitely know where the problem occurred, but 'why?' is the
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question. We think we know, but have to be sure. We think it's very
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small and will require a tiny change, so tiny that if we had another
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rocket on the pad we could launch tomorrow.
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**Wired.com:** You always emphasize testing and testing and more
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testing, and you've been super careful to make sure everything is right
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before launching. So what's the disconnect – why do things still go
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wrong?
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**Musk:** Some things can only be tested in space. Bear in mind, Falcon
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1 is our test vehicle. The reason we started with F1 isn't because I'm
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passionate about launching small satellites, but because I want to make
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mistakes on a small scale and not a large one. And this doesn't appear
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to be a quality issue or a manufacturing issue. It's a design issue
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related to new hardware that has only flown on this flight. It was our
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first with the new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine. The problem
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we think we've identified is a lesson learned and thus we won't make it
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on the big Falcon 9, and in that sense it's helpful.
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**Wired.com:** Your whole mantra is "cheaper and more reliable." But so
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far you're zero for three, which is anything but cheap and reliable, and
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guys like GlobalSecurity.org's John Pike say the reason it has taken
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billions of dollars and tens of thousands of people to successfully
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launch rockets is physics, not some new design or economic model.
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**Musk:** Guys like John Pike have existed since the dawn of time, and
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if you listen to people like that then things will never get better,
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never change. It's a false point of view. Yes, we need to put some
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rockets into orbit. But the first order of business is to get rid of
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design errors, which we're doing, and once those are eliminated then
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you're dealing with repeatability, and people should judge what we're
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doing from the point of view of all the design issues we've ironed out
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through these F1 test flights.
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**Wired.com:** You've been quoted many times saying you had enough money
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for three unsuccessful flights, and then ...
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**Musk:** That was the dumbest thing I've ever said. I meant that after
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three unsuccessful flights we might be abandoned by our customers – if
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they abandoned us I couldn't see how it would work. But that has turned
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out not to be the case. We've gained customers between missions and so
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it would be silly to abandon the business when we have 12 flights ahead
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of us.
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**Wired.com:** But you're about to formally announce SpaceX's first
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outside investment?
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**Musk:** Yes, we took an investment from the Founder's Fund, a fund run
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by a bunch of guys I used to work with at PayPal. They've been
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interested in SpaceX for a long time and I knew that, and thought it
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might be smart to take an investment from them to increase our war chest
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in case something didn't go right on flight three. Which turned out to
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be true.
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**Wired.com:** At the end of the day you're still zero for three; you
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have so far failed to put a rocket into orbit.
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**Musk:** We haven't gotten into orbit, true, but we've made
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considerable progress. If it's an all-or-nothing proposition then we've
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failed. But it's not all or nothing. We must get to orbit eventually,
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and we will. It might take us one, two or three more tries, but we will.
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We will make it work.
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**Wired.com:** How do you maintain your optimism?
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**Musk:** Do I sound optimistic?
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**Wired.com:** Yeah, you always do.
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**Musk:** Optimism, pessimism, fuck that; we're going to make it happen.
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As God is my bloody witness, I'm hell-bent on making it work.
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**Wired.com:** So what have you learned so far?
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**Musk:** Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough
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lesson.
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