Elon Musk addresses employees at Hawthorne HQ
Hi... alright. [Applause] Well, that was freaking awesome. We made orbit!
Thanks to the hard work of basically, the SpaceX team, you know, all you guys. I mean, that’s really what got us to orbit there. And there are a lot of people that thought we couldn’t do it. A lot, actually. But, you know, as it goes, fourth time’s the charm, right? [Laughter]
So this really means a lot to SpaceX, obviously. I mean, getting to orbit — that’s just a huge milestone. There’s only a handful of countries on Earth that have done it. It’s normally a country thing, not a company thing. So, it’s just an amazing achievement. You know — my mind is kind of frazzled, so it’s kind of hard for me to say anything. But, man, definitely this is one of the greatest days of my life, and I think probably for most people here.
It’s, you know, we’ve shown people we can do it, and this is just the first step in many. I mean, we’re going to get Falcon 9 to orbit next year, get the Dragon spacecraft going. You know, we’re going to be taking over for the space shuttle when that retires. We’re going to do a lot of things. Ultimately, I think even getting to Mars and things like that. I think definitely the future of SpaceX is really great. [Cheering and long applause]
Yeah, I don’t know what else to say, because, I mean, it’s just like so freaking awesome. My mind’s blown. Except, just like I said, reaffirm, this is just the first step of many. And this really opens the way for us to get Falcon 9 going, get manned spaceflight... I mean, there’s just so many cool things that are there in the future.
And, I mean, I’m going to have a really great party tonight. I don’t know about you guys... [Cheering]
I’m going to go talk on the webcast thing so I can tell people what went on.
[Employee question about the status of RatSat]
RatSat, I believe, is currently orbiting at 330 by 650, almost exactly. RatSat is in orbit, absolutely. [Cheering]
So, it’s got an — Apogee’s about a couple hundred kilometers above the space station. So, yeah, if somebody could take a picture of it, there’d be, like, this logo of a rat on the satellite.
So, all right, I’m going to talk on the webcast, but congratulations, everyone. This is your hard work that made this happen. [Applause]
Post-launch webcast interview with Elon
Diane: Now Elon Musk is joining us, of course, as our CEO and CTO of this flight and the founder of SpaceX. And, Elon, congratulations.
Elon: Thanks, Diane.
Diane: What a fine day. A lot of people call this a nominal launch. We call it phenomenal.
Elon: Absolutely, it’s great.
Diane: So, tell us what you’re feeling.
Elon: Definitely one of the best days of my life. And I think also for a lot of people here at SpaceX, it’s the culmination of a dream. And, yeah, it’s kinda mind-blowing, actually. So, I can hear myself actually echoing back there.
Yeah, I’m just... I think my nervous system almost got fried just watching that flight. So, you know... yeah, wow.
Diane: You know I heard you the other day in an interview say that you wouldn’t need to build any more rockets because if we were successful, you’d already be over the moon. Is that true?
Elon: Ha ha, oh right, exactly. I think I probably am over the moon. Yeah.
Diane: We missed some of what you were saying to the employees over there. We couldn’t really hear online here. Are you able to repeat for some of us what you told your employees like right after the launch?
Elon: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I guess the important thing is that this is really just the first step for SpaceX.
We’re really — we’re showing we can get to orbit. And we’re going to do that repeatedly now. What we’ve shown is that we’ve eliminated any design errors with the vehicle. If you look at the issues with the first three flights, they were really, you know, design errors in the case of a corroded nut and then the second stage guidance plus slush baffles thing. And then the third mission was the fact that we had a brand-new engine with an uncharacterized thrust transient vacuum. But now we’ve eliminated those design issues.
And so really, in order for us to have continued success, it’s going to be ensuring that we have good configuration control, good production and quality assurance processes, you know, just doing all of the appropriate things as far as mission assurance is concerned. But I think it’s certainly possible for us to have an unbroken success record now that the design issues are taken care of with Falcon 1.
And also for Falcon 9, this bodes well because if you look at the components on Falcon 1, you’ve got the Merlin 1C engine on Falcon 1. It’s the same engine that’s on Falcon 9. Yeah, so we’ve got a lot of the same components on Falcon 1 as Falcon 9. You know, in terms of the software, certainly guidance, navigation and control is substantially the same between Falcon 1 and Falcon 9. The engine propulsion system is substantially the same. There’s more of them — more engines — but it’s the same fundamental engine. And, of course, we’ve already shown that we can do nine engines simultaneously and fire those repeatedly on our test stand in Texas without a problem.
So I think what you’re seeing here bodes well not just for Falcon 1, but also for Falcon 9. And it’s really just the first step for SpaceX. And next year we’ll be doing our first launch for the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program, with both Falcon 9 and our Dragon spacecraft.
Diane: Is the Falcon 9 going down to the Cape before the end of the year?
Elon: Yeah, absolutely. We expect to have Falcon 9 vertical at the Cape by the end of this year. And then probably do our first launch in the second quarter of next year.
Diane: We had a lot of sidebars here we were going to talk about. We were going to talk about our Cape construction and about COTS. But the launch went so perfectly and so perfectly on time that we had no time to do that. So we do have a lot on our website. But we’re hoping that as time goes on we’ll be able to learn more about each one of those.
Elon: Yeah, absolutely. The launch, this was the smoothest launch countdown of all. And it just shows the team’s getting more and more practiced at these things. And the system’s getting smoother and smoother. All the bugs are getting worked out.
We look forward to doing a lot of Falcon 1 launches and a lot of Falcon 9 launches. And really, you know, continuously improving to the point where we’re the world’s leading provider of space launch.
Diane: That’s fantastic. I’m so glad you could join us. And, again, congratulations.
Elon: All right, thank you.