SpaceX humble beginnings - Elon's public speech from 2003

[Grendal]

Elon from 2003 talking about SpaceX. It starts at 8:00. It is fascinating to see that his goals really haven't changed that much.

He wants his rocket to be used to go to the Moon or Mars.

Low costs. Falcon 1 was $6 million. Falcon 9 is just about 9 times more expensive.

Innovation driven.

He doesn't like patents.

This discussion happens pre-Tesla.

 

[Grendal]

Three years later. He's talking about re-usability (with parachutes) and engine out capability.

Elon has years early timetables....

Dealing with suppliers and their products.

 

[Grendal]

Making life multi=planetary.

Terrible sound on this one...

 

[ecarfan]

He is consistent, that's for sure.

It is astonishing what SpaceX has accomplished in just 13 years. If in 2003 anyone had predicted that in 2016 SpaceX would be routinely doing powered first stage recoveries at sea and on land and launching payloads at the rate they are doing, no one except Musk would have believed it would be possible.

Almost no one I know pays any attention to SpaceX. I start talking about it and most people just tune out. I have a neighbor who works for Apple and he and a cousin of mine are just about the only people I know personally who follow SpaceX. And my wonderful spouse, who now gets just as excited as I do watching a stage landing.

We seriously plan to be in the crowd at Cape Canaveral when SpaceX launches the first humans to Mars. It will be a turning point in human history. I have to see it live.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

We seriously plan to be in the crowd at Cape Canaveral when SpaceX launches the first humans to Mars. It will be a turning point in human history. I have to see it live.

I was seriously planning to watch this from S. Texas!

 

[Piney999]

This whole thread is awesome! Please keep posting old videos of Elon!

 

[ecarfan]

I was seriously planning to watch this from S. Texas!

I wouldn't complain if the SpaceX launch taking the first humans to Mars was from the new SpaceX launch site being built near Brownsville Texas. Easier to drive there in my S.

But I think it will be from the Cape. It's about the history, and likely better support facilities.

 

[Nikxice]

Watching the first humans depart for Mars would be pretty cool. Near term, the first Falcon Heavy to launch from Florida at the end of this year would be quite a show to catch live. SpaceX's 27 Merlin engines lighting off simultaneously will likely bring up comparisons to the failed Russian N1 rocket program from the sixties. Since the Russians didn't take Elon seriously 15 years ago, I'm sure he wouldn't mind showing them how it's done today.

 

[Grendal]

Since the Russians didn't take Elon seriously 15 years ago, I'm sure he wouldn't mind showing them how it's done today.

They took his money seriously. The problem is that was all they were focused on.

 

[Grendal]

A new one I've never seen before from 2008:

SpaceX and a little about Tesla. The audience seems to ask some pretty interesting questions. The seem more knowledgeable than the basic public.

Some early versions of stories that Elon talks about to this day.

He is focused on re-usability by this point. It took 7 more years before a booster was successfully landed.

 

[Grendal]

The humble beginnings went official when SpaceX finally got a rocket into orbit. Here is the Falcon 1, flight 4 first successful flight to orbit on September 28th, 2008 including the post launch discussion with Elon:

SpaceX was the first commercial company to reach orbit.

Two years later SpaceX launches their first Falcon 9 with the Dragon Qualification Unit which eventually burned up in the atmosphere:

Even at this point SpaceX was actually attempting to recover their booster. It had a parachute built into it to have the opportunity for a slow landing and possible recovery. The parachute failed and the booster was lost on impact.

 

[palmer_md]

Bummer all the previous posts are not working any longer....I never got to see them.

 

[ATC@LWSK]

Bummer all the previous posts are not working any longer....I never got to see them.

Try this:

elon spacex speech 2003 - YouTube

 

[Grendal]

Here they are again:

2006 with never before seen footage of Falcon 1 launch 1.

 

[Grendal]

After Falcon 9:

 

[Electroman]

Watch from 21:00. Elon talks about unable to hire people easily because of the restrictions, and comments "I couldn't have hired myself 5 years ago" !!