Episode 1: Peter Dohm
Recorded August 5, 2020

Host: Jeff Ward
Guest: Peter Dohm

Introduction

Jeff Ward:
What I really want you to know is that this podcast is called It’s Not Rocket Science. It’s an exploration of what people do after they’ve already had the coolest job on the planet—working at SpaceX.

My name is Jeff Ward. I worked at SpaceX for about three and a half years as Vice President of Avionics, and during that time I met a lot of incredibly smart and interesting people. In this podcast, we explore what those people are doing now, how they got to SpaceX, what they did there, and how that experience shaped them.

The first person who agreed to participate in this experiment is my good friend and former colleague, Peter Dohm, whom I worked with both at SpaceX and at Millennium Space Systems.

Meet Peter Dohm

Peter Dohm:
I’m an RF engineer—I work on communication links. Right now, I’m working on an electric propulsion project with a company called Prime Lightworks. We’re a small, two-person company based in Torrance, California, working on novel electric propulsion systems and trying to get our prototype up and running.

Jeff:
Let me stop you right there. One of the challenges of this podcast is terminology. Pete is a communications engineer—basically, he builds radios. But now he’s working on propulsion systems, the things that move spacecraft around in space. So how does being a radio guy turn you into a propulsion guy?

Pete:
A lot of electric propulsion is actually radio-frequency based. I’m using my background in RF engineering to build electronics that optimize a satellite propulsion system.

Doing the “Impossible”

Jeff:
When I looked up RF cavity thrusters on Wikipedia, they were referred to as the impossible drive. Are you planning to violate any laws of physics?

Pete:
Not that we know of. We’ve done full modeling and first‑principles calculations, and everything checks out. We have a patent pending and hope to publish our results soon to show that this really works without breaking physics.

Jeff:
So despite the name of the podcast, I really did interview a rocket scientist.

Pete:
I don’t know if I was ever a rocket scientist. I’ve always thought of myself as a communications engineer masquerading as one.

Getting to SpaceX

Jeff:
How did you end up at SpaceX in the first place?

Pete:
With an RF degree, you basically end up in cell phones or satellites. Aerospace interested me more, so I applied to the big companies—Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop—but I also saw a smaller company in El Segundo called Space Exploration Technologies. I sent in my résumé, got a call a few days later, and that was that.

When I showed up, SpaceX was literally under construction. There was a pit in the lobby where they were pouring concrete.

Jeff:
What was the interview process like?

Pete:
Intense—five back‑to‑back interviews, thirty minutes each. People kept grilling me harder as I went along. One interviewer pulled out a ham radio and asked if I could make it work.

The Reality of SpaceX

Pete:
My first summer was hard. Going from school to the real world was a shock. I didn’t think my work was good enough. We were working sixty, eighty hours a week—even interns.

I joined during the Falcon 1 days. I arrived right around Flight 3.

Jeff:
I remember thinking SpaceX might go out of business after that third failure.

Pete:
The next day, Elon stood up at an all‑hands meeting and said we were going full steam ahead. A few months later, we had our first successful Falcon 1 launch. That showed me the company was willing to do the impossible.

Landing Rockets—and Personal Costs

Pete:
One of the most ridiculous-sounding ideas was the Grasshopper program. Someone stood up, drew a rocket on the board, and said, “We’re going to stop it midair and land it upright.” We all thought he was crazy.

Nine to twelve months later, it worked.

Jeff:
But that environment came with a cost.

Pete:
Absolutely. The stress affected me in ways I didn’t recognize at the time. I didn’t cope well. I drank heavily. I stress‑ate. I gained about 25 pounds. My coping mechanism became food and alcohol.

Hitting Rock Bottom

Jeff:
Did you have to leave SpaceX to realize something was wrong?

Pete:
Yes. I wasn’t aware of myself at all while I was there. Leaving gave me perspective. I eventually went through rehab to deal with substance abuse and other issues. It was the only way to reset.

If I’d stayed, I don’t think I would have figured it out.

A Healthier Philosophy

Jeff:
Now you’re back in a startup environment. How do you handle stress differently?

Pete:
I learned you have to put yourself before the company. Being healthy makes the company better. I also rely on an outside support system now, not just coworkers.

Jeff:
Do you think balance is compatible with startup success?

Pete:
Yes. A startup will either succeed or fail, no matter how much you stress. My partner and I agreed from day one we didn’t want a SpaceX‑style culture.

Life Beyond SpaceX

Jeff:
As an early SpaceX employee, you had equity. What did you do with it?

Pete:
I split it four ways: taxes, reinvesting in startups, personal investments, and starting a curling center in Los Angeles.

Jeff:
A curling center?

Pete:
Curling is a game of angles and precision—it really appealed to me. It also became part of my support system. Having something outside of work made a huge difference.

Closing Thoughts

Jeff:
It sounds like your SpaceX experience shaped how you think about work and life.

Pete:
Definitely. I used to be defined as a SpaceX engineer. Now I’m defined by a lot more than that.

Jeff:
Thanks so much for your openness, Pete.

Pete:
Thanks for having me. This was a lot of fun.