It’s Not Rocket Science
Laura Crabtree — This Spacesuit’s Supposed to Make You Look Cooler
Highlights
Must-work (02:26)
Epsilon3 builds software for hardware that isn't allowed to fail.
"It's firmly in the must-work scenario. So if you're building hardware that has to work when you operate it, that's where we live in Epsilon3. So, you know, our software must work. It can't ever go down. And your hardware must work. It can't ever fail."
Red pens and highlighters (06:50)
What she found when she went looking at how test data was really being kept:
"And you might not be surprised to know that some people were actually printing out papers and using red, blue and other colored pens and highlighters. And then scanning documents in. And this is like, you know, 2021. This isn't like 2010, 2004."
The Laura test (12:38)
Every hire at Epsilon3 has to clear a bar with her name on it.
"The number one thing is you have to show up the same way with everyone. You have to be a good person. You have to say what you mean, mean what you say. And if you say you're going to do something, you have to do it. And that's how we've built the team. And every single person after the first 20, when we interview someone, it's like the Laura test, which is, are they going to pass the Laura test?"
Like a divorce (16:40)
Why leaving SpaceX after 11 years was harder than starting a company.
"When you leave after an 11 year stint, it's sort of like a divorce. Not that I know what that would be like, but I suspect it would feel like leaving SpaceX. But, I mean, I have been happily married for 13 years. So I'm not planning that, but you know what I mean? It's like ripping out a part of yourself."
Find a way (23:09)
Her early years: a 0G cargo simulator for a $5 million NASA milestone, 300-pound cargo bags, cargo racks riveted by hand, and NASA's white-glove test.
"So we had to sand everything down. And it was just an all-hands-on-deck moment. And I think my first three years, maybe more, were characterized by just a lot of random experiences like that. Things that I was not trained to do. And you just find a way to do them."
Demo-2 (26:04)
Demo-2, 2020. The astronauts on top of the rocket were people she had trained.
"I almost shut off my brain at the moment because my friends were on the rocket and I had spent the better part of five years training them. And I knew all of their families and I knew their children. And it was a really tough moment for me. I was elated, but also terrified. And I think in the book Reentry, I think Eric has actually quoted me by saying something along the lines of, I was crying. I know I was crying, but I don't remember it."
The spacesuit review (29:17)
Before the SpaceX spacesuit looked the way it does now, it got one very blunt design review.
"We were designing the spacesuit and I was the model for the spacesuit. You obviously know what it looks like now. It didn't always look like that. And we were demonstrating it and I walked into his office wearing the spacesuit with a couple of other SpaceXers at the time. And we were demonstrating like movements and here I can like sit down in a chair and I can like move my arms. And he looked at me dead in the face. And he said, this spacesuit's supposed to make you look cooler, not stupider."
The Sunday night test (41:54)
The takeaway: a test for any job, including her own.
"I'm passing the Sunday night test. Sunday night comes around and I'm thinking about all the people that I get to work with, all the people I get to talk to, all the things we get to build in the coming week. And I think probably everybody should have that kind of test."
