Highlights

The decision to join (05:15)

"It was one of those kind of moments that you kinda step back and you look and kinda go, well, if I don't do this, am I gonna kick myself in the butt for the next thirty years? Or if I go and do this, am I going to die trying?"

The explosion in Garvey's backyard (08:32)

"My wife and I are walking in, and we hear this loud explosion in the backyard. And I'm like, oh my god. Somebody just died. And it was a pyrotechnic test to basically blow the nose cone off the front of this thing. And right there, I was like, oh, yeah. More of this, please."

What SpaceX taught him about failure (12:02)

"I worked fifteen years in big aerospace at McDonnell Douglas and Boeing… you'll spend months, sometimes years, analyzing something just to ensure that it's not going to fail and you're not moving the ball forward. Whereas at SpaceX, the thing that I learned and still even kind of apply today is that it is okay to fail… fail fast, fail hard, learn, move on."

Two and a half days at Blue Origin (18:42)

"I did go to Blue Origin for two and a half days and I got lied to in the interview… then they sued me because I violated the terms of my contract and their non compete clause. Paragraph 3.8, by the way. And so we ended up suing them back and won, which was great. That makes you feel good when you beat Jeff Bezos in court."

The Astra thesis (21:58)

"Can you build a small rocket? Yes. Cost effectively. Absolutely… Can you build it at scale? A 100% you can do that, and we proved that. But can you build a rocket that is only 80% reliable and have repeat customers? No."

The quintessential Elon story (26:14)

"Jeff Richichi and I were over there washing the adhesive off our hands with acetone and not even flinching… Elon sees us do this, and he goes over and does the same thing… Immediately, he starts screaming and yelling, like, oh my god. This hurts so bad. But the funniest part was all the acetone on the floor started melting his… Neiman Marcus shoes."

The badge on the desk (28:17)

"I'm like, dude, this is not my job anymore. I am a minion. And I literally got up. I walked out of there. I took a deep breath. I walked over to Jerry Fielder's office, threw my badge on his desk, and I said, I'm effing out of here."

The takeaway (30:07)

"My dad was a cop. My dad was also a former Marine Corps drill instructor. So you can imagine what home life was like… It's like I've been yelled at before… You kinda step back at the end of the day. It's like, alright. What did I screw up? Or did I even screw up? And you just take that moment to reflect… I tried my damnedest to not bring it home… I had time to just reflect on the day, take a little bit of a deep breath before I walk through the door."