Speech at the Crew Demo-2 Launch Party
Questions on ElonsFAQ asked in this interview (4)
Transcript
0:00Elon MuskKind of hard to talk Frankly. It's been 18 years working towards this goal.
0:11Elon MuskJust, yeah. Acknowledge the incredible work of the people at SpaceX and NASA and everyone in creating this technology and what has culminated in this incredible launch today of getting astronauts back to orbit after almost a decade should really get people.
0:36Elon MuskI mean, right on the heart of anyone who has any spirit of exploration. And the United States is a distillation of the human spirit of exploration. I think this is something that's particularly important in the United States, but appeals to everyone throughout the world who has within them the spirit of exploration.
0:53Elon MuskSo, I mean, I'm really quite overcome with motion in this day. It's kind of hard to talk Frankly. It's been 18 years working towards this goal. So it's hard to believe that it's happened when we haven't quite yet docked it at the space station.
1:13Elon MuskAnd of course, we need to bring them back safely and we need to repeat these missions and have this be a regular occurrence. So it's a lot of work to do.
1:23Elon MuskBut it's just incredible. I think this is something that everyone, you know, this is a craft made by humans, you know, for humans. This is like something that I think humanity should be excited about and proud of occurring on this day.
1:41Elon MuskI think this is. This is a day that is that I think everyone can be proud of that it's a good day to be. This event is something that all of humanity can get excited about.
1:55Elon MuskIt's just a fundamentally positive good thing. And I think we need more positive good things in this world. On Wednesday, during the first countdown, I'd say that my adrenaline was railed at 100% and when the launch was called off, it went to zero percent.
2:15Elon MuskIt was like I just basically collapsed and slept. The longest time I'd slept in probably a year. Then, oddly enough today, I don't know, it felt like just the fates were aligned.
2:25Elon MuskAnd I didn't feel. Didn't feel nervous, didn't feel. For whatever reason, I did not. I did not feel nervous. A trance accomplishment for SpaceX in partnership with NASA and a number of critical suppliers.
2:40Elon MuskIn fact, if I think about the total number of people involved in making this mission successful, probably adds up to 100,000. So I'd just like to just express a word of appreciation and congratulations again to everyone involved in making this successful.
2:56Elon MuskAnd actually, and just special word to the administrator and Kathy and it's just everyone involved, it's just. Wow. Anyway, it is a little hard to process. I think at this point, I am Somewhat overcome by emotion to try to come up with cohesive sentences that make any sense.
3:23Elon MuskIt's quite difficult. But I think the, this is hopefully the first step on a journey towards a civilization on Mars. Life becoming multi planetary based on the moon and expanding beyond Earth and life becoming multiplanetary for the first time in the four and a half billion year history of Earth.
3:50Elon MuskI think this is hopefully the first step on that journey. It will require a tremendous amount of innovation and technology development to make going to orbit and ultimately beyond orbit a routine matter where thousands and perhaps ultimately millions of people can travel to other planets.
4:14Elon MuskThat's what we really need to achieve over time. And that's, that's obviously a very difficult goal. But that's seeming increasingly real with what happened today. Getting people to orbit finally after 18 years, if we are able to increase the rate of innovation, then life can become multi planetary.
4:40Elon MuskThis is the goal we should strive for. Yeah, human spaceflight was, it was always the goal, the fundamental goal. SpaceX. Well, like I said, to create the technologies or help create the technologies necessary to make life sustainably multi planetary.
5:00Elon MuskI cannot emphasize this enough. This is the thing that we need to do. We must make life sustainably multiplanetary. It's not one planet to the exclusion of another, but to extend life beyond Earth.
5:12Elon MuskWe are life's agent in this regard. All the creatures and the plants and everyone that exist here on Earth, we can bring them to other planets and it's very important that we do so as soon as possible.
5:24Elon MuskI think while the window of opportunity is open,
5:31Elon MuskI call upon the public to support this goal and to think about this goal and think about how important it is and how fundamental it is to the future.
5:43Elon MuskWe've got to get it done. Launching satellites is nice, of course, and it keeps the, you know, we've got to bring in more money than we spend. This is important, but it's ultimately all about life beyond Earth.
6:02Elon MuskNASA made us way better than we would otherwise have been. And obviously we couldn't even have got to without NASA. So thank you very much for your support.
6:13Elon MuskSo I'm optimistic in general. So I guess that extends to schedules too. I don't know. I mean, I guess I would wish that we could do it in two years.
6:30Elon MuskI don't know. That might mean four, but I don't know. I think it's not out of the question that it could be two years. I would be surprised if it took more than four.
6:43Elon MuskMaybe I'll just blank out the word doubt.
6:53Elon MuskSo no, I mean to be totally frank, I doubted us too. So I thought we had maybe when starting SpaceX, maybe had a 10% chance of reaching orbit. So to those who doubted us, I was like, well, I think you're probably right.
7:10Elon MuskI mean the number of times that I was told, because I was taking the money that I earned from PayPal and rolling it into to create SpaceX and Tesla and ended up spending it all, it wasn't the intention but.
7:27Elon MuskAnd almost both companies went bankrupt. Frankly, 2008 was a tough year. Took us four attempts just to get to orbit with Falcon 1.
7:41Elon MuskBut a lot of times people would tell me this joke, like how do you make a small fortune in the rocket industry? You start with a large one is the punchline.
7:50Elon MuskAnd I was like, OK, I already heard that joke 12,000 times. Anyway, it almost came true. We just barely made it there. That fourth launch of Falcon 1, that's all the money we had for that fourth launch.
8:10Elon MuskAnd that wasn't even enough to save the company. We also then had to win the NASA cargo resupply contract. So that came a little after a little bit later, right towards the end of 2008.
8:21Elon MuskThose are the two key things that saved SpaceX, otherwise we would have not made it. So yeah, I think those data were, their probability assessment was correct. But fortunately Beta smiled upon us and brought us to this day.
8:43Elon MuskYeah, human spaceflight was, it was always the goal, the fundamental goal of SpaceX. Well, like I said, to create the technologies or help create the technologies necessary to make life sustainably multi planetary.
8:59Elon MuskI cannot emphasize this enough. This is the thing that we need to do. We must make life sustainably multiplanetary. It's not one planet to the exclusion of another, but to extend life beyond Earth.
9:11Elon MuskWe are life's agent in this regard. All the creatures and the plants and everyone that exist here on Earth, we can bring them to other planets. And it's very important that we do so as soon as possible.
9:23Elon MuskI think while the window of opportunity is open. Well, it really hit home, you know, when you meet somebody's kids and the vehicle that you're responsible for, their life's at stake, it really hits home.
9:53Elon MuskSo there's still. So we still got a dock with Space Station, we still got a return. I think there's an argument that the return is more dangerous in some ways than the ascent.
10:07Elon MuskSo we don't want to declare victory yet. We need to bring him home safely, make sure that we're doing everything we can to minimize that risk of re entry and return.
10:20Elon MuskWe were able to do that with the Demo 1 vehicle, so we were able to retire. A lot of risk with the re. Entry there. That's big deal. But yeah, that.
10:32Elon MuskThat's.
10:37Elon MuskAnyway, get. Get it choked up here. So it. It's. It really? This. Yeah. I don't. I'm getting choked up. Sorry. I'm not sure I can answer the question any more than that, except.
10:51Elon MuskYeah, gonna do everything we can to make sure it gets home safely.