NASA Administrator Bridenstine Chats with Elon Musk
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (3)
Transcript
0:05Jim BridenstineWelcome to Watch this Space. I'm NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and today we're going to visit the historic launch complex 39A, where we launched all of our moon missions and even some space shuttle missions.
0:20Jim BridenstineToday we have a very special guest, elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX. We are at the Kennedy Space center at Launch Complex 39A, which is a very historic, I would say, not just launch complex, but a very historic monument for our country.
0:38Jim BridenstineFrom this launch complex we launched all of our missions to the moon. We also launched space shuttles. And we have a really exciting event that's happening tonight, which is the reason why we're here, which is tonight we're going to launch with what we call Demo 1, which is a mission to the International Space Station with Crew Dragon.
0:58Jim BridenstineIn other words, it's not crewed, but it is a test flight going all the way to the International Space Station. Now, where we are right now on Launch Complex 39A, we're on a what we call the crew arm, which is the way the astronauts are actually going to get to the capsule so that they can fly to the International Space Station.
1:19Jim BridenstineNow that's not going to happen tonight, but tonight we're gonna test the vehicle, all components of the vehicle. And I am thrilled and honored to be here at this very historic site with Elon Musk, who has been an amazing partner for NASA for all of the years to get us to this point where what we wanna do this year is launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.
1:43Jim BridenstineAnd getting to this point, as you and I have talked, was not something that came easy, it's not something that came fast. But step by step you have gotten us to where we're ready almost to take that next step.
1:57Jim BridenstineI'd like to start just by asking you, the story that is out there is that there was a time in your life when you made a trip to Russia and your intent was actually to buy, I guess, an excess intercontinental
2:12Elon Muskballistic missile or without the nuke.
2:15Jim BridenstineWithout the nuke, right. Without the nuke. That's a good point.
2:18Elon MuskThat's extra.
2:19Jim BridenstineThat's extra, right. So tell me about why you were there and ultimately how it resulted in this moment right now. Sure. Well,
2:29Elon Muskoriginally I was not going to start a rocket company. I really wanted us to become a space marine civilization and a multi planet species. And I thought if there's something I could do to get the public excited about sending people to Mars and maybe having a permanent base on the moon.
2:52Elon MuskI wanted to do a philanthropic mission. To send a small greenhouse to service to Mars. So you'd have this amazing shot of green plants on a red background. And I thought that would really inspire the public.
3:01Elon MuskAnd if the public got inspired about setting light to Mars, then they would tell their senators and congressmen to appropriate more money for NASA so that we could do that.
3:11Elon MuskSo my initial goal was actually just to increase NASA's budget. And then what I found was that first of all, the Russians really started wanting to charge me way more than I could afford.
3:21Elon MuskThey wanted to charge more money than I had to do the philanthropic mission. And so that was ended up not really being an option. And I thought, well, is there any way to make a lower cost and especially a reusable rocket system in the US?
3:37Elon MuskAnd so I just read every book I possibly could on rocket engineering and decided to try giving it a go, essentially to give NASA more options, more sort of technology, like more technology, horses in the stable essentially to use in order to get humanity into space and become multi planet species.
4:03Jim BridenstineAnd you started with a much smaller
4:05Guestrocket, a Falcon 1.
4:07Jim BridenstineAnd was your goal at that point when you started with Falcon 1 to get to the point where we had nine engines for Falcon 9? Was that your goal at that time?
4:15Elon MuskWhen I started SpaceX, I only thought there was maybe a 2, 10% chance of getting Falcon 1 tool. I did not at all think that this would happen. So this is for sure a dream come true.
4:26Elon MuskBut I literally, at the time I didn't know anything about rockets and I was, you know, I've been the Chief Engineer of SpaceX since day one and I don't really know anything about rockets.
4:34Elon MuskWhich is why the first three rockets failed.
4:36Jim BridenstineRight.
4:36Elon MuskAnd then.
4:38Jim BridenstineSo the first three Falcon ones for SpaceX were failures?
4:42Elon MuskYes.
4:42Jim BridenstineAnd then tell me about the fourth
4:45Elon Muskbook, the fourth one. So I'd actually only had enough money for three flights, so I had no more money left. And we managed, the team sort of rallied and we managed to put together enough spare parts to pay to do a fourth launch.
4:59Elon MuskAnd that fourth launch was successful.
5:03Jim BridenstineSo what would have happened if it wasn't successful?
5:06Elon MuskSpaceX would have died.
5:07Jim BridenstineSo we would not be here right now at this moment getting ready to launch crew Dragons to the international circuit. Wow, that's an amazing story of taking a risk and actually coming out on top and enabling not just you and SpaceX, but enabling the United States of America to come to this very critical point in American history.
5:30Elon MuskAbsolutely. And I'd just like to express a great appreciation for NASA and acknowledge the debt that SpaceX owes NASA in developing all over the rocket. The rocket technology that we built our rockets on was developed by NASA over many decades.
5:49Elon MuskAnd without that, SpaceX would not have been possible. And then shortly after our first success, NASA gave us a critical contract to resupply the space station with cargo. And that was also fundamental to SpaceX's success.
6:05Elon MuskAnd without NASA's support, SpaceX wouldn't be here. So thank you.
6:09Jim BridenstineWell, it was long before my time. I'd like to thank NASA, thank the United States of America for supporting this really amazing opportunity. Well, we have now learned the events surrounding Elon Musk's decision to start SpaceX.
6:25Jim BridenstineLet's meet some of the astronauts that will be launching on commercial crew. Yes, but that was in 2001, when all of that kind of started materializing and we started having these thoughts.
6:37Jim BridenstineI wanted to ask Victor, who's going to be one of our. One of our pilots of these crew vehicles? 2001, where were you in 2001?
6:48GuestI was learning to fly jets. Okay. And I actually got my wings here.
6:52Elon MuskCool. So awesome.
6:55Jim BridenstineSo Victor was a Navy, a naval aviator getting his wings. What, what month was that? 2001.
7:01GuestDecember 2001.
7:02Jim BridenstineOkay, so you got yours about five months ahead of me. I was in May of 2001. But you obviously did much better than I did because I. I ended up running a museum and then becoming a politician.
7:13Jim BridenstineAnd you went on to become an astronaut.
7:15GuestI don't know if you can say that now, sir.
7:18Jim BridenstineMy job is much easier than you, I can tell you that. Of course. We're so proud of all of our astronauts. You guys have all made your whole country proud.
7:27Jim BridenstineBob, how about you? Can you remember maybe 2001 where you might have been at that time?
7:31GuestI can. Back in 2001, I was an astronaut candidate. I started in the Office back in 2000 in the summer of July. So just getting my first chance to come down here to Kennedy and strap crews in.
7:42GuestI was just getting started as a kickstarter Saters, one of the astronauts that operated the space shuttles before the crew came to Shrapan and collected them after they landed in the space shuttle.
7:51Jim BridenstineAnd your background before that you were an Air Force flight test engineer, correct?
7:54GuestI'm an Air Force flight test engineer, still active duty in the Air Force. I worked the F22 program after test pilot school and then worked in a research lab at Eglin Air Force Base prior to that.
8:05Jim BridenstineSo it's amazing to think about where everybody was at these different times. And how it all comes together. Together at this one moment in 2019, we're gonna make it happen.
8:14Elon MuskI never would have thought this would have happened. I would have given it less than a 1% chance.
8:17Jim BridenstineYeah, it is really amazing. Doug, how about you in 2001?
8:21GuestWell, I'm a classmate of Bob's, so we started. We were selected in 2000 as astronauts and so we were still astronaut candidates, just kind of learning our new trade.
8:30GuestSo kind of hard to believe you just got your wings. We were already astronauts by then, or at least almost astronauts. Astronauts. We're working towards being a full fledged astronauts, but yeah, just, it's amazing how far we've come in that short amount of time.
8:43Jim BridenstineHow about you, Mike?
8:45Elon Musk2001, that's a long time ago. Yeah, I was. Seriously, a long time ago. It is, yeah. I can remember it well, but it was 18 years ago now.
8:52Jim BridenstineEighteen years, that is incredible.
8:54Elon MuskI was, I'm a flight test engineer as well. Flight test engineer as well. In the Air Force.
9:00GuestAnd it was in Canada Cold Lake, Alberta. I was on exchange at their flight
9:04Elon Musktest center testing the Canadian jets.
9:06GuestYeah. Awesome.
9:08Jim BridenstineYeah. So right now inside the crew dragon for tonight's launch is. I don't want to call him or her a dummy.
9:17Elon MuskI know, I was trying to avoid the use of the word dummy.
9:20Jim BridenstineTell me what we call the, I guess, synthetic person anthropometric test article. So what is it you decided to name the anthropomatics test article?
9:34Elon MuskI pulled it. Ripley.
9:35Jim BridenstineRipley.
9:35Elon MuskRipley from Aliens.
9:38Jim BridenstineFantastic.
9:38Elon MuskYeah, it's a great character.
9:40Jim BridenstineYeah. One thing that SpaceX has done really well is capture the imagination of the American people through branding and really exciting things. Launching, for example, a Tesla which is still in deep space orbiting the sun.
9:54Elon MuskYeah, I mean that was a case where like normally we do it for like first test flight of a rocket. You know, normally like a block of concrete would be launched because you don't want to launch anything valuable like would get destroyed on initial flights.
10:07Elon MuskOn initial flight of Falcon Heavy team was originally going to launch a block of concrete. It's like, guys, it's hard to get the public excited about a block of concrete.
10:16Elon MuskOkay, so like what's something like, you know, that's an image that's going to really stick to people's minds and resonate. And so it's like, okay, let's put a car in space.
10:27Elon MuskDoesn't make any sense. Obviously you can't drive a car in space, but at least it's convertible. Even though there's no errors making Sense and then putting, I guess, anthropomorphic test article in a spacesuit, driving the car through space.
10:45Elon MuskAnd then, you know, it's kind of thing I think kids can get really excited about and like, you know, so I think it's inspiring adults and kids and people of all ages to want to go out there and explore and become multi planet species and have a base on the moon and build a city on Mars and ultimately go to other star systems.
11:04Elon MuskWe've got to have inspiring images, things that really have a strong emotional effect and just make you feel.
11:13Jim BridenstineSo Doug, tell me tonight's test flight. What are some, some of the things that we're going to be looking for? What are as, as, as somebody who's going to be on this, you know, the crew flight.
11:23Jim BridenstineWhat are some of the things you're going to be looking for?
11:25GuestIt's just kind of an end to end test for the system. So we just want to see the teams work through, all the way through to launch the ascent.
11:33GuestThen we've got to get the vehicle activated in orbit, then work our way through a rendezvous and then we're trying to get out to Hawthorne actually to see the docking out there as well.
11:42GuestAnd so obviously just seeing how the team's always work together and make this mission successful and then all the way through to the splashdown. So I think we're just trying really hard just to see every bit of the system go through space.
11:56Jim BridenstineSo I like what you said, the words end to end. So all of the systems and all of the subsystems, they've all been tested over and over again.
12:03Elon MuskI mean, a lot of testing. Yeah, and I mean this has really been a joint effort with NASA on the spacecraft would not be nearly as good as it is without the input from NASA.
12:17Elon MuskThere's been a lot of NASA health here and thank you for that.
12:20Jim BridenstineWell, we're very grateful for what you're doing helping us launch American astronauts from American soil once again. And of course, these gentlemen here are the beneficiaries of that. And I can only express the best that I can how proud all of America is with who you are and
12:40Guestwhat you've done and what you represent.
12:42Jim BridenstineThe entire world is going to see us launching again to the International Space Station. And this time when we do it, it's different. In fact, NASA is a customer.
12:53Jim BridenstineAnd as a customer, we become one of many that will be using this crew vehicle, if all goes according to plan, and we'll have a robust commercial marketplace for spaceflight.
13:04Jim BridenstineAnd that commercial marketplace could Be sovereign countries. It could be individuals that want to go maybe on vacation to space, which I know sounds crazy, but I'll tell you, and you know this, those folks are out there and there's a lot of folks that are ready to do it.
13:19Jim BridenstineOf course they have the same dreams and ambitions that all of you had when you were coming up. So it's, it's an exciting time.
13:27Elon MuskI think this is a good, this is a good step. It really is getting, getting people back in orbit. Yeah. And yeah, it's a step towards like ultimately, I mean, what I really want to see is, you know, permanent base on moon.
13:44Elon MuskOn the moon. Permanently occupied human base on the moon and us building a city on Mars. That's like. I can see the beginning of that. Before I die, I'll die happy.
13:54Jim BridenstineWell, the President's first space policy directive to me was go to the moon. And the word in there is sustainably. So how do we go? We don't want to recreate the Apollo program exactly.
14:05Jim BridenstineWe don't want to leave flags and footprints and not go back. We want to go and want to stay. And this time that means landers, rovers, robots and humans in a sustainable return.
14:16Jim BridenstineIt doesn't mean at this point we're ready to have, as you mentioned, you know, a city on the moon. But what it means is we can put together all of the components that enable it to eventually be sustainable.
14:29Jim BridenstineAnd part of that is reusability. Tell me.
14:32Elon MuskReusability. Fundamental. A fully reusable vehicle will cost 100 times less per flight than an expendable vehicle. It kind of makes sense. Think of any other mode of transport, jet aircraft or cars, bicycles, horses, every other mode of transport, boats, they're all reusable.
14:58Elon MuskThe, the weird one that isn't reusable is space.
15:02Jim BridenstineThat's right.
15:02Elon MuskSo you can imagine how expensive it would be if every time you flew in a jet that you had to get a new jet as opposed to refuel the jet.
15:12Elon MuskIt would be insanely expensive to fly a jet if it was single use.
15:15Jim BridenstineThere wouldn't be anybody flying.
15:17Elon MuskExactly. It would be like a few research flights at extreme expense and that's all the flying that would occur. So the absolutely fundamental breakthrough that's needed is a fully reusable orbit class Rockland spaceship system.
15:34Elon MuskAnd it needs to be fully and rapidly reusable. So the cost of reuse must be very low and it must be able to have a high flight rate. And then that's the fundamental breakthrough needed for humanity to become a multi planet species.
15:48Jim BridenstineAnd I think one of the key enables. There was a program we called Commercial Crew that went into place quite a while ago. And what the vision was was that we would have multiple providers competing on cost and innovation.
16:02Jim BridenstineAnd of course that has now taken effect. And as you are competing against others in this commercial marketplace, you have a huge incentive to drive down the cost and increase the access to space.
16:15Jim BridenstineAnd that's materializing here on this crew Dragon that we're going to see launch tonight.
16:20Elon MuskYeah, I actually don't care at all about money at all. But I do care about us becoming space faring civilization. And I do know that if we don't achieve full and rapid reusability, it will not happen.
16:32Elon MuskAnd so that's why that's the only reason I actually want money at all.
16:36Jim BridenstineAwesome. Awesome. Well guys, thank you for being a part of this and it's an exciting night. Well, thank you for watching Watch this Space. I'm NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.
16:49Jim BridenstineYou can follow me on Twitter imbridenstein. And of course, if you want to watch this again, you can do [email protected] watchthisspace.