WEBVTT - 3D Printing a Better Rocket 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:23.836 Pushkin. Tim Ellis builds rockets for a living. He started 0:00:23.836 --> 0:00:26.676 his career at Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by 0:00:26.756 --> 0:00:29.796 Jeff Bezos, and then in twenty fifteen he left to 0:00:29.916 --> 0:00:33.836 start his own rocket company. The company is called Relativity Space, 0:00:34.316 --> 0:00:37.556 and last year they launched their first rocket. The launch 0:00:37.596 --> 0:00:39.996 did not go exactly as planned. 0:00:41.596 --> 0:00:42.196 Launch day. 0:00:43.476 --> 0:00:47.276 A lot of emotions certainly come up thinking about it. 0:00:47.916 --> 0:00:49.316 There's really no way to describe it. 0:00:49.316 --> 0:00:51.356 It was actually a new emotion I don't think I've 0:00:51.356 --> 0:00:57.876 felt in my entire life. 0:00:58.196 --> 0:01:00.516 I'm Jacob Goldstein and this is What's Your Problem? The 0:01:00.556 --> 0:01:02.556 show where I talk to people who are trying to 0:01:02.636 --> 0:01:07.276 make technological progress. Tim Ellis is really working on a 0:01:07.316 --> 0:01:10.356 couple of problems. He's working on a short term problem, 0:01:10.476 --> 0:01:13.836 which is how can you use three D printing to 0:01:13.916 --> 0:01:17.676 make rockets more cheaply and quickly? And then he's working 0:01:17.756 --> 0:01:20.676 on a long term problem, which is how can three 0:01:20.756 --> 0:01:27.476 D printing help humans colonize Mars? Trying not to start 0:01:27.476 --> 0:01:30.116 with the email to Mark Cuban, but I can't, so 0:01:31.116 --> 0:01:33.116 tell me about your email to Mark Cuban. 0:01:33.396 --> 0:01:36.516 I really was convinced that three D printing was going 0:01:36.596 --> 0:01:39.356 to be a highly disruptive technology and wanted to go 0:01:39.476 --> 0:01:41.316 try to print a whole rocket, but we didn't really 0:01:41.356 --> 0:01:43.836 have anything At the time I emailed to Mark Cuban, 0:01:44.556 --> 0:01:49.756 I actually had not even emailed anybody else with a 0:01:49.796 --> 0:01:53.156 relativity space email address. That actually was the first email 0:01:53.236 --> 0:01:55.916 I ever since. So I created the relativity Space email 0:01:55.916 --> 0:02:00.236 address to email Mark Cuban. That the idea really came. 0:02:00.396 --> 0:02:02.996 I mean, I am from Plano, Texas. It's a suburb 0:02:03.036 --> 0:02:05.876 more at the Dallas so I certainly grew up hearing 0:02:05.916 --> 0:02:09.036 a lot about Mark Cuban with Dallas Mavericks. And I 0:02:09.276 --> 0:02:13.036 had a friend at USC in Los Angeles, where I 0:02:13.076 --> 0:02:16.116 went to college, that was an entrepreneur, and I remember 0:02:16.156 --> 0:02:18.436 he had a blog where I think at one point 0:02:18.476 --> 0:02:21.676 he just said, you know, Mark Cuban does actually answer 0:02:21.756 --> 0:02:24.676 cold email. So it sort of heard about this, you know, 0:02:24.836 --> 0:02:28.076 phenomenon from that. So I thought, well, you know, I 0:02:28.076 --> 0:02:30.796 don't know any investors, actually don't really know anything about 0:02:30.836 --> 0:02:33.036 starting the company, but I know I need to raise money. 0:02:33.156 --> 0:02:35.316 I didn't know how to do it, so I just thought, well, 0:02:35.316 --> 0:02:38.036 I'm going to try emailing Mark Cuban and let's see 0:02:38.036 --> 0:02:40.676 if it works. So I didn't have his email address, 0:02:41.236 --> 0:02:43.716 So I had to guess twenty different versions of his 0:02:43.756 --> 0:02:48.076 email address, you know, Mark at Dallasmavericks dot com, Mark 0:02:48.116 --> 0:02:51.036 dot Cuban at Dallas Mavericks dot com, you know mcuban 0:02:51.036 --> 0:02:55.276 at Dallas Mavericks. And then I did Gmail. Does anybody 0:02:55.276 --> 0:02:56.716 have Hotmail or Yahoo anymore? 0:02:56.716 --> 0:02:59.076 I mean, let's be my mom does, but let's be honest. 0:02:59.396 --> 0:03:01.996 So it would be amazing if Mark Cuban, Yeah, Mark 0:03:02.036 --> 0:03:02.636 Cuban heady. 0:03:02.996 --> 0:03:03.236 Yeah. 0:03:03.596 --> 0:03:06.436 So so you guess all these email addresses. 0:03:06.836 --> 0:03:09.756 And then you know, from there, I knew he's a 0:03:09.796 --> 0:03:12.036 busy guy, so I couldn't write a lot of words, 0:03:13.236 --> 0:03:16.196 and so I just explained, you know, I'm from Plano, Texas, 0:03:16.236 --> 0:03:18.596 like so I led with that, and then you know, 0:03:18.676 --> 0:03:22.396 quickly talked about that I worked with Jeff Bezos personally, 0:03:22.436 --> 0:03:25.556 which is true for the three D printing projects, so 0:03:26.036 --> 0:03:28.996 kind of getting him hooked, making him realize I'm not 0:03:29.156 --> 0:03:32.836 so far away from him, and then showing credibility and legitimacy, 0:03:32.876 --> 0:03:36.716 especially because I was only twenty five. But he replied 0:03:36.756 --> 0:03:38.796 back in five minutes and then said, well, what do 0:03:38.836 --> 0:03:42.356 you want from me? And so it quickly got into 0:03:42.516 --> 0:03:45.756 the ask and then you know that almost felt like 0:03:45.796 --> 0:03:50.756 being on Shark Tank, I guess virtually. But yeah, you know, 0:03:50.996 --> 0:03:54.356 we said we were raising half a million dollars. Even 0:03:54.356 --> 0:03:56.196 that amount was a little bit pulled out of thin 0:03:56.276 --> 0:03:59.356 air because again we kind of just started the company 0:03:59.396 --> 0:04:01.356 and not even really started yet, like we hadn't even 0:04:01.396 --> 0:04:02.196 incorporated yet. 0:04:02.236 --> 0:04:03.836 It really was the first team all we sent. 0:04:03.956 --> 0:04:07.716 So yeah, I asked him for one hundred thousand dollars 0:04:07.836 --> 0:04:11.356 of a half a million dollar funding rounds, and then 0:04:12.196 --> 0:04:16.356 you know, he replied back almost immediately again asking you know, 0:04:16.516 --> 0:04:20.276 why does melon do this? Had a you know, kind 0:04:20.316 --> 0:04:24.116 of straightforward answered like he's just focused on other things 0:04:24.116 --> 0:04:25.436 and this is complimentary. 0:04:26.196 --> 0:04:26.836 And then he. 0:04:26.756 --> 0:04:30.036 Wrote back, We'll just do the full half a million dollars, 0:04:30.196 --> 0:04:32.236 like he just gave us the whole five hundred k. 0:04:33.196 --> 0:04:35.716 We've now done six funding rounds, we've raised one point 0:04:35.716 --> 0:04:39.276 three three billion dollars, and he's invested in every single one. 0:04:39.316 --> 0:04:42.036 Were you surprised by his reply when he said he'd 0:04:42.076 --> 0:04:42.916 give you five hundred dollars? 0:04:42.996 --> 0:04:48.236 Yeah, hell, yeah, of course, yes absolutely. I Mean I 0:04:48.316 --> 0:04:51.636 now know just how hard fundraising is, and it's a 0:04:51.836 --> 0:04:52.796 complete an omelet. 0:04:53.116 --> 0:04:57.836 So at that time, you're starting this company, like, what's 0:04:57.876 --> 0:04:58.316 your dream? 0:05:01.316 --> 0:05:04.116 So we wrote on the back of a Starbucks napkin 0:05:04.956 --> 0:05:09.516 all or Starbucks receipts, I guess, really kind of showing 0:05:09.556 --> 0:05:13.196 the relationship between three D printing a rocket and then 0:05:13.236 --> 0:05:15.956 one day, how we see this technology helping build an 0:05:15.956 --> 0:05:19.676 industrial base on Mars. So I thought, you know, really 0:05:19.836 --> 0:05:24.356 a lot of the inspiration behind starting Relativity space came 0:05:24.396 --> 0:05:28.956 from this realization that SpaceX had landed rockets and docked 0:05:28.996 --> 0:05:31.756 with the International Space Station. They were a thirteen year 0:05:31.756 --> 0:05:34.836 old company. It was super exciting to watch what they 0:05:34.836 --> 0:05:37.956 had done, even when I was at Blue Origin. But 0:05:38.636 --> 0:05:41.636 despite this once in a generation's success, they're still the 0:05:41.636 --> 0:05:44.036 only company in the world that wanted to make humanity 0:05:44.116 --> 0:05:47.396 multiplanetary and put a million people on Mars. So I 0:05:47.436 --> 0:05:51.276 thought it was inevitable there has to be a second. Clearly, 0:05:51.476 --> 0:05:53.036 if we're going to put a million people on Mars, 0:05:53.076 --> 0:05:55.356 there will be you know, dozens to hundreds. 0:05:55.076 --> 0:05:56.516 Of companies that make this happen. 0:05:57.116 --> 0:06:00.236 So I thought, heck, we could be the like, we 0:06:00.276 --> 0:06:02.316 are going to be the second company to go try 0:06:02.316 --> 0:06:05.236 to put a million people on Mars too, because there's 0:06:05.356 --> 0:06:07.716 clearly going to have to be a person that builds 0:06:07.756 --> 0:06:12.276 the company that builds all the industrial base equipment, you know, 0:06:12.556 --> 0:06:15.836 initially maybe spare parts and other things. So yeah, we 0:06:15.916 --> 0:06:18.236 could we could be those founders, and that was something 0:06:18.396 --> 0:06:21.676 that resonated a lot with me, and it's still true today. 0:06:21.876 --> 0:06:23.956 So if the dream is to put a million people 0:06:23.956 --> 0:06:27.916 on Mars, when you're starting, what's the what's the how 0:06:27.956 --> 0:06:28.436 you get there? 0:06:28.476 --> 0:06:28.676 Point? 0:06:28.796 --> 0:06:30.676 Yeah, Like, what are you actually setting out to do 0:06:32.116 --> 0:06:33.836 in practical terms to achieve that? 0:06:33.876 --> 0:06:34.316 Of course? 0:06:34.356 --> 0:06:37.236 So you know, really the first major goal, which has 0:06:37.716 --> 0:06:41.076 now become Chapter one of Relativity, which we actually just completed, 0:06:41.396 --> 0:06:44.316 was to three D print an entire rocket, and then 0:06:44.356 --> 0:06:47.236 the second big piece was to develop the world's largest 0:06:47.236 --> 0:06:48.116 metal three D printer. 0:06:48.636 --> 0:06:50.956 So tell me about the sort of three D printing 0:06:51.036 --> 0:06:54.596 dream you know, when you're starting out, what's yeah, why 0:06:54.956 --> 0:06:58.196 why is three D printing sort of the core kind 0:06:58.196 --> 0:07:01.796 of technical piece or manufacturing piece that you're focused on. 0:07:01.996 --> 0:07:05.276 Early on, Really, what we thought was three D printing 0:07:05.676 --> 0:07:08.116 was more of an automation technology, and this was the 0:07:08.516 --> 0:07:10.556 kind of uns the thing, and I was certainly a 0:07:10.636 --> 0:07:12.436 user of the technology. By the way, like all of 0:07:12.476 --> 0:07:15.156 the parts and products I designed, a blue egin used 0:07:15.196 --> 0:07:17.636 off the shelf metal three D printers. So and that's 0:07:17.636 --> 0:07:19.596 why I started the three D printing division there, because 0:07:19.636 --> 0:07:22.476 I really, for myself saw firsthand just how great it 0:07:22.556 --> 0:07:25.876 was to design products that would normally be twenty different 0:07:25.876 --> 0:07:28.116 parts and you could print them as one piece and 0:07:28.196 --> 0:07:30.076 so then you only had to print a single piece, 0:07:30.116 --> 0:07:31.996 and it was a lot faster and cheaper, and it 0:07:32.076 --> 0:07:35.356 still functioned basically the same, but the key thing is 0:07:35.596 --> 0:07:38.996 it looked super different. So in order to combine twenty 0:07:39.036 --> 0:07:41.756 parts together and print them, you don't just take an 0:07:41.836 --> 0:07:45.196 existing product and press print. It really has to be 0:07:45.236 --> 0:07:48.716 designed from the very beginning for this technology. And I 0:07:48.716 --> 0:07:50.956 think that was the key thing that made me realize 0:07:50.996 --> 0:07:54.036 we had to start our own company because a printed 0:07:54.116 --> 0:07:57.436 rocket and all the way you test it, qualify it, 0:07:58.116 --> 0:08:01.116 make sure it actually works the material science, like so 0:08:01.156 --> 0:08:05.356 many pieces needed to be developed from scratch to make 0:08:05.396 --> 0:08:06.836 a whole printed rocket happen. 0:08:07.196 --> 0:08:09.876 You can't just say, yeah, let's make rocket the way 0:08:09.916 --> 0:08:12.876 we're making it, but instead of using machined parts, let's 0:08:12.876 --> 0:08:14.996 three D print them. Like that's not the way it works. 0:08:15.036 --> 0:08:18.036 You have to sort of re engineer the rocket from 0:08:18.116 --> 0:08:21.236 the ground exactly when you're starting the company, what's your 0:08:21.356 --> 0:08:25.636 thesis simply for why a three D printed rocket would 0:08:25.636 --> 0:08:29.316 be better than a traditionally manufactured rocket. 0:08:29.356 --> 0:08:32.156 A three D printed rocket, the thesis really was, we 0:08:32.196 --> 0:08:35.476 can reduce the part count by two orders of magnitude, 0:08:35.556 --> 0:08:39.476 so one hundred times fewer parts. That really comes from 0:08:39.556 --> 0:08:43.036 part count consolidation, and you print them together as single pieces. 0:08:44.116 --> 0:08:46.796 We believed we could build a rocket very quickly. 0:08:47.316 --> 0:08:50.556 So initially the tagline was building a rocket in sixty 0:08:50.636 --> 0:08:53.636 days and this sixty days later we could build another version, 0:08:53.756 --> 0:08:56.196 and sixty days after that another version. So this is 0:08:56.476 --> 0:08:59.196 the north star of where we see the tech getting 0:08:59.196 --> 0:09:02.916 to and then the others cost So clearly all of 0:09:02.916 --> 0:09:07.116 those those two things really help us reduce the cost 0:09:07.196 --> 0:09:10.716 of launch, and that that was really it. I mean, 0:09:10.756 --> 0:09:12.916 at the end of the day, people that are building 0:09:13.076 --> 0:09:17.076 satellites and need rocket launches, which is our primary business model, 0:09:17.476 --> 0:09:20.796 just want something that's reliable, It can actually launch their 0:09:20.796 --> 0:09:25.076 payload and has enough payload capacity, it's cheap, and it 0:09:25.116 --> 0:09:27.516 shows up on time. It's a pretty sure. 0:09:27.556 --> 0:09:29.716 They don't care how it's built right, It doesn't matter 0:09:29.756 --> 0:09:31.996 to them. They just wanted to go to space and 0:09:32.036 --> 0:09:33.036 not blow up and. 0:09:33.276 --> 0:09:34.076 Be cheap yep. 0:09:34.196 --> 0:09:37.316 So it's as you said, going on eight years ago 0:09:37.316 --> 0:09:39.156 that you started the company. I know you had your 0:09:39.236 --> 0:09:43.316 first launch earlier this year. So just to jump to 0:09:43.396 --> 0:09:47.236 the moment, like just before that launch, tell me about 0:09:47.276 --> 0:09:50.156 what you had built. Tell me about the factory and 0:09:50.236 --> 0:09:52.516 about the three D printers. 0:09:52.996 --> 0:09:56.036 Sure to the metal printer's relativity is built. Are the 0:09:56.116 --> 0:10:00.556 largest in the world. We had several generations in our factory. 0:10:01.156 --> 0:10:04.476 When you walk into them, it looks like Westworld a bit. 0:10:04.636 --> 0:10:09.036 So there's a big robotic arm, six axis industrial robotic arm. 0:10:09.396 --> 0:10:11.836 There's a print head at the end of it. That 0:10:11.916 --> 0:10:17.196 print head deposits metal and uses it was lasers at 0:10:17.236 --> 0:10:21.356 the time, but it's also plasma arc energy. So you basically, 0:10:21.516 --> 0:10:25.236 you know, using electricity, melt the wire and wherever the 0:10:25.356 --> 0:10:29.156 robot our moves, you just deposit molten metal and it solidifies. 0:10:29.316 --> 0:10:31.436 There's a whole of course control system. There's a bunch 0:10:31.476 --> 0:10:33.716 of sensors that are constantly monitoring this. 0:10:34.276 --> 0:10:35.476 How big is it. 0:10:35.476 --> 0:10:41.956 It's about thirty five feet tall. For the latest versions 0:10:43.196 --> 0:10:45.756 can print up to eighteen feet diameter. 0:10:47.156 --> 0:10:47.716 It's huge. 0:10:47.796 --> 0:10:50.916 Can print a rocket basically, I mean eighteen feet diameters 0:10:50.996 --> 0:10:52.636 like the tube of the rocket. 0:10:52.716 --> 0:10:56.156 Yes, I mean eighteen feet is the diameter of our 0:10:56.396 --> 0:10:59.236 next reusable vehicle, which is three point thirty million pounds 0:10:59.276 --> 0:10:59.996 of thrust. 0:10:59.756 --> 0:11:02.156 So one big yeah diameter, the big one. 0:11:02.196 --> 0:11:04.076 But they also built the ones that we launched, which 0:11:04.116 --> 0:11:06.836 is seven and a half feet wide. We had quite 0:11:06.836 --> 0:11:08.636 a few of these printers, so it really just looked 0:11:08.636 --> 0:11:13.476 like a field of robot arms, you know, melting metal 0:11:13.716 --> 0:11:17.196 and in a very precise way, very controlled, very high quality. 0:11:17.996 --> 0:11:20.516 It was actually quite a quiet factory because of this. 0:11:20.956 --> 0:11:25.476 You know, there really was not a lot of uh sound, 0:11:25.756 --> 0:11:28.516 the hustle and bustle. Certainly, that's very high energy. When 0:11:28.556 --> 0:11:31.316 you walk in a rocket factory that's actively building a rocket. 0:11:31.436 --> 0:11:32.516 You know, there's there's. 0:11:32.356 --> 0:11:35.356 A lot of people around, but overall less than you 0:11:35.396 --> 0:11:40.476 would normally have. And uh, you know, certainly something that 0:11:40.516 --> 0:11:43.356 looks like the future. There's no question about that. This 0:11:43.476 --> 0:11:44.316 looks like the future. 0:11:44.436 --> 0:11:47.116 So is there an example of a thing that initially 0:11:47.116 --> 0:11:48.916 didn't work, didn't work the way you thought it was 0:11:48.956 --> 0:11:50.836 going to work, and you had to figure out a 0:11:50.876 --> 0:11:52.516 different way to make it work. 0:11:52.636 --> 0:11:55.356 Yeah, Well one was you know, of course, in rocket 0:11:55.436 --> 0:11:58.956 engine development, you blow up rocket engines in fact, I 0:11:58.996 --> 0:12:02.916 actually encouraged the team to push hard enough to blowing 0:12:03.076 --> 0:12:04.156 up at some point. 0:12:04.916 --> 0:12:05.556 You don't like. 0:12:05.516 --> 0:12:07.676 If you're if you're not blowing them up, you're you're 0:12:07.676 --> 0:12:10.636 not really testing them exactly exactly. 0:12:11.236 --> 0:12:12.876 Now, you don't want to blow up the test stand 0:12:12.996 --> 0:12:15.596 because that tends to tends to be a. 0:12:15.676 --> 0:12:17.756 Much right amount of blowing up. 0:12:17.916 --> 0:12:22.076 Yeah, it's a slower, slower recovery, but blowing up a 0:12:22.156 --> 0:12:25.596 rocket engine, now, Yeah, there's different failure modes. Some are 0:12:25.916 --> 0:12:30.236 more catastrophic than others. We were actually fairly lucky. We 0:12:30.236 --> 0:12:33.876 didn't have any that were insanely bad. We had one 0:12:33.996 --> 0:12:36.676 that was, you know, kind of kind of rough, really 0:12:36.716 --> 0:12:38.756 early in the program. I think it was our fourth 0:12:38.756 --> 0:12:43.436 ever chamber tests. We were a tiny, tiny company that 0:12:43.556 --> 0:12:47.556 particular one. So I remember watching the flame down in 0:12:47.596 --> 0:12:51.836 the flame trench slowly creep up, a little drip of 0:12:51.956 --> 0:12:54.516 methane that was still still kind of dripping from the 0:12:54.556 --> 0:12:55.996 engine at the end of the test, and you. 0:12:56.036 --> 0:12:58.596 Just fuse almost yeah. 0:12:58.516 --> 0:13:01.196 Almost almost, and you just watch this flame, you know, 0:13:01.236 --> 0:13:03.676 in the slow mode video, creep up, creep up, and 0:13:03.716 --> 0:13:05.756 then right when it goes in the engine chamber, it 0:13:05.836 --> 0:13:08.836 was just like a bomb, just went off. Now, of 0:13:08.836 --> 0:13:10.996 course nobody was hurt. Everything was safe. We got to 0:13:10.996 --> 0:13:15.316 give those caveats, but it was Yeah, it's pretty crazy video. 0:13:16.236 --> 0:13:19.276 But it took a few months to go fix that 0:13:19.556 --> 0:13:21.836 and to figure it out. So we're lucky at the 0:13:21.876 --> 0:13:25.356 time we had three engine tests that had been successful 0:13:25.396 --> 0:13:28.276 before that, so we knew it wasn't a fundamental problem. 0:13:28.436 --> 0:13:30.356 It was something we could fix. I think if you 0:13:30.396 --> 0:13:32.916 blow up your very first engine, that can be kind 0:13:32.916 --> 0:13:36.996 of hard because then you don't know exactly does it 0:13:37.036 --> 0:13:38.276 fundamentally work or not. 0:13:38.836 --> 0:13:41.716 So tell me about launch day. Right, this was whatever 0:13:41.996 --> 0:13:44.716 seven ish years after you launched the company. You're ready 0:13:44.716 --> 0:13:46.796 to launch the first rocket. Tell me about that day. 0:13:49.036 --> 0:13:49.636 Launch day. 0:13:50.916 --> 0:13:54.676 A lot of emotions certainly come up thinking about it. 0:13:54.716 --> 0:13:56.636 There's really no way to describe it. It was actually 0:13:56.676 --> 0:13:58.636 a new emotion. I don't think I've felt in my 0:13:58.796 --> 0:14:02.476 entire life. It was at night, so we had to 0:14:02.556 --> 0:14:06.156 launch at night due to the air traffic kind of coordination. 0:14:06.236 --> 0:14:08.716 It was around spring break, so we wanted to be 0:14:08.796 --> 0:14:12.036 a good kind of airspace, you know, citizen, so to speak. 0:14:12.236 --> 0:14:14.116 We weren't really sure what it was going to look like. 0:14:14.116 --> 0:14:16.236 By the way, so this is also the first methane 0:14:16.236 --> 0:14:19.636 fueled rocket to ever attempt orbit a launch outside of China. 0:14:19.956 --> 0:14:22.836 I'm China does not show photos or videos of launches. 0:14:23.156 --> 0:14:25.836 So this literally was the first time the world was 0:14:25.916 --> 0:14:28.596 going to see a methane fueled rocket fly. That was 0:14:28.676 --> 0:14:31.516 the other big thing. So we didn't know what it 0:14:31.556 --> 0:14:34.276 was going to look like as it was launching to orbit, 0:14:34.956 --> 0:14:39.796 and so when it you know and ended up. Of course, 0:14:39.836 --> 0:14:42.076 a lot of the activity at this point we had, 0:14:42.436 --> 0:14:45.036 you know, about a thousand people at the company, but 0:14:45.116 --> 0:14:47.996 so the team didn't need me to do anything. Like 0:14:48.036 --> 0:14:51.916 they're extremely coordinated, trained, they know exactly what they're doing. 0:14:53.076 --> 0:14:54.676 There's it was at caj. 0:14:54.796 --> 0:14:57.636 Getting in the way at that point, I mean bothering people. 0:14:58.476 --> 0:15:00.596 No, I think I do a good job staying out 0:15:00.596 --> 0:15:02.396 of the way. I was just enjoying it. I think 0:15:02.396 --> 0:15:04.156 that was the biggest thing. You know, certainly I was 0:15:04.196 --> 0:15:07.516 on the hook for whatever happened. To be clear, this 0:15:07.636 --> 0:15:11.596 is a first launch. No company had ever reached orbit 0:15:11.796 --> 0:15:14.796 in the world in history on a very first launch, 0:15:15.276 --> 0:15:18.516 and the major is intense, like you are getting kind 0:15:18.556 --> 0:15:22.516 of constant pings over the radio hearing as we're loading propellants. 0:15:22.596 --> 0:15:26.156 You know, preparing the rocket for flight. You know, each 0:15:26.196 --> 0:15:29.876 step there's different troubleshooting and things that are happening live 0:15:30.076 --> 0:15:33.116 because you know, a lot is automated, but it is 0:15:33.156 --> 0:15:35.076 all happening for the first time. You have tens of 0:15:35.116 --> 0:15:38.076 thousands of sensors and data channels all over the rocket. 0:15:38.476 --> 0:15:42.516 It is a very complex coordination. So even though people 0:15:42.556 --> 0:15:46.036 are well trained, there's on the fly, you know, is 0:15:46.076 --> 0:15:48.676 this temperature okay? On the batteries, is you know, it's 0:15:48.716 --> 0:15:49.356 out of bounds? 0:15:49.356 --> 0:15:49.916 Like is it okay? 0:15:49.996 --> 0:15:52.276 So there's like whole teams of engineers just going and 0:15:52.316 --> 0:15:55.076 doing calculations and coming back and saying yes, we're good 0:15:55.076 --> 0:15:58.436 to go. You know, the winds are a big issue, 0:15:58.436 --> 0:16:01.276 so we're launching weather balloons and tracking wind data to 0:16:01.276 --> 0:16:03.596 make sure the winds aren't too strong, not at the 0:16:03.596 --> 0:16:06.156 ground level but way up in the atmosphere because that's 0:16:06.196 --> 0:16:10.876 a huge factor of launch success. There's boats and we 0:16:10.916 --> 0:16:14.876 have Coastguard people chasing boats that are in the violation 0:16:14.916 --> 0:16:16.836 of the Keypout zone with like you know, we had 0:16:16.836 --> 0:16:19.636 like people with AK forty seven's trying to tell them 0:16:19.676 --> 0:16:21.836 like hey, you're you know, illegally in the zone, Like 0:16:21.836 --> 0:16:23.836 you got to get out of there. We had a 0:16:24.196 --> 0:16:27.636 Navy plane takeoff from an aircraft carrier in the middle 0:16:27.676 --> 0:16:30.996 of you know, almost the launch windows. It's counting down, 0:16:32.076 --> 0:16:37.356 so it's kind of controlled, very very controlled, but very 0:16:37.596 --> 0:16:40.436 intense because all of these things are popping up, even 0:16:40.516 --> 0:16:42.836 at the point of you know, getting down. 0:16:42.636 --> 0:16:44.996 To just a few minutes to the to the launch countdown. 0:16:44.996 --> 0:16:48.076 And just to be clear, this is purely a test flight, right, 0:16:48.116 --> 0:16:52.236 there's no commercial payload on it. There's no people on it. 0:16:52.956 --> 0:16:54.116 Basically just launch in the run. 0:16:54.236 --> 0:16:56.996 Yeah, correct, this one. You know, some companies decide to 0:16:56.996 --> 0:16:58.276 have a payload on the first launch. 0:16:58.276 --> 0:16:59.316 We decided not to. 0:17:00.076 --> 0:17:04.116 We ended up flying the first the very first shavings 0:17:04.196 --> 0:17:07.036 of a three D printed part that we ever made 0:17:07.356 --> 0:17:11.196 seven years ago. The idea behind that was, you know, 0:17:11.316 --> 0:17:13.196 all of the failure we had to overcome to get 0:17:13.196 --> 0:17:16.556 to this point, like we're launching that story. I had 0:17:16.556 --> 0:17:21.476 my Starbucks receipt, you know, every employee got a photo 0:17:21.556 --> 0:17:22.076 that kind of thing. 0:17:22.076 --> 0:17:26.836 But yeah, no, Palin, So okay, so it's time, what like, 0:17:27.636 --> 0:17:29.076 it's time for the racket to launch. 0:17:29.276 --> 0:17:33.316 So as sixty seconds was counting down, the energy is high. 0:17:33.356 --> 0:17:35.996 Now we had It's very normal for a rocket launch. 0:17:36.076 --> 0:17:39.156 At first, we had two other attempts that happened in daylight. 0:17:39.556 --> 0:17:42.156 They got very very close to launching. Actually one of 0:17:42.156 --> 0:17:45.036 them even ignited all the nine engines and then aborted. 0:17:45.156 --> 0:17:47.956 So at the time that you're several minutes close to 0:17:47.996 --> 0:17:51.356 the flight, it's really one hundred percent automated, and then 0:17:51.356 --> 0:17:55.396 once you're under seventy seconds, it literally is automated, so 0:17:55.516 --> 0:17:56.876 if anything happens, it just. 0:17:56.796 --> 0:17:59.356 Aboords and safes itself. It's all software driven. 0:17:59.756 --> 0:18:02.356 So we had had a few other launch attempts that 0:18:02.596 --> 0:18:05.276 just you know, a sensor was off or some temperatures 0:18:05.316 --> 0:18:08.316 slightly drifted because a lot of complex things are happening, 0:18:08.356 --> 0:18:11.676 and those final stuff twenty seconds, so that's also actually 0:18:11.716 --> 0:18:15.196 contributing to the anxiety and the you know, adrenaline is 0:18:15.396 --> 0:18:18.116 you actually don't yet know is it definitely going off 0:18:18.196 --> 0:18:20.636 or definitely not. Of course, it's counting down, so in 0:18:20.676 --> 0:18:24.236 the engines light it holds down for several seconds until 0:18:24.236 --> 0:18:26.716 they get up to full thrust. There's a bunch of 0:18:26.716 --> 0:18:29.516 health checks, you know, which are all automated on the rocket, 0:18:29.556 --> 0:18:32.756 and then there's the final command that sends which has release. 0:18:33.276 --> 0:18:37.276 So right when what are called the rocket holdbacks or 0:18:37.556 --> 0:18:42.276 hold downs release back. Then the rocket moved up and 0:18:42.316 --> 0:18:45.156 I saw ice, you know, start kind of falling off 0:18:45.156 --> 0:18:47.556 of it all over the place because it's really cold propellant, 0:18:47.556 --> 0:18:49.276 so there's ice all over it. So this ice just 0:18:49.316 --> 0:18:52.556 like you know, kind of cheers off of it and 0:18:52.676 --> 0:18:56.516 looks like a star dust or something coming off. So 0:18:56.596 --> 0:18:58.876 right when that happened, you know, the engines had already 0:18:58.916 --> 0:19:01.556 been let. It's like this crazy blue and purple and 0:19:01.636 --> 0:19:05.316 orange flame like methane rockets, like really really insane compared 0:19:05.356 --> 0:19:06.396 to normal rockets. 0:19:06.756 --> 0:19:07.916 I waited for that moment. 0:19:08.236 --> 0:19:11.196 I absolutely had planned I was going to run outside, 0:19:11.556 --> 0:19:14.036 so I had the path already set and kind of 0:19:14.796 --> 0:19:18.276 like very very quickly but also careful not to trip 0:19:18.276 --> 0:19:22.156 and fall. Went out the door and went around the corner, 0:19:22.876 --> 0:19:25.756 and I just remember the feeling of opening the door, 0:19:25.956 --> 0:19:27.876 and right when you open it to go outside, it 0:19:27.996 --> 0:19:30.876 just nails you in the chest. I mean, rockets, of 0:19:30.956 --> 0:19:34.796 course are really intensely powerful. I'd seen engine tests before, 0:19:35.876 --> 0:19:39.676 but yeah, you just immediately feel this like fluttering kind 0:19:39.716 --> 0:19:42.556 of almost like somebody's pounding your chest a little bit. 0:19:42.676 --> 0:19:46.476 The sound is the sound that ye yeah, yeah, so. 0:19:46.516 --> 0:19:50.196 Loud, super loud, and then I turned around the corner, 0:19:50.236 --> 0:19:52.236 so I basically heard it before I saw it. Then 0:19:52.316 --> 0:19:56.156 turned around the corner, and then you know, just a 0:19:56.356 --> 0:19:59.156 hundred or so feet in the air, was just this 0:19:59.436 --> 0:20:02.436 rocket flying and there's a crazy bright blue flame that 0:20:02.516 --> 0:20:05.516 looks like looking at a star, you know, being launched 0:20:05.596 --> 0:20:08.236 to space. I mean, videos really don't do it just 0:20:08.316 --> 0:20:10.636 it is. It is so so much brighter and so 0:20:10.796 --> 0:20:14.756 much cooler looking in person. And then you just feel 0:20:15.116 --> 0:20:17.436 energy in the air, Like the air almost feels dense 0:20:17.476 --> 0:20:20.676 and thick, and it sounds like a whip cracking plus 0:20:20.996 --> 0:20:24.596 sub base, you know, just at eleven out of ten intensity, 0:20:25.396 --> 0:20:28.356 so it feels alive like that. That's what's so cool. 0:20:28.996 --> 0:20:32.436 Microphones and video really just don't capture the feeling of 0:20:32.476 --> 0:20:36.676 a live launch because it's like, yeah, just very visceral. 0:20:36.836 --> 0:20:40.196 And then of course people around me are like screaming 0:20:40.276 --> 0:20:43.796