
Elon Musk’s Space Dream Almost Killed Tesla - adventured
http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-elon-musk-spacex/
======
kzhahou
I applaud Elon, but I gotta say I'm uncomfortable with the extreme adulation.
His company merged into Paypal -- he did not invent that payment solution. He
was an investor in Tesla before taking it over -- the original idea and
company were not his. The press paints him otherwise on both counts. That's
undoubtedly a better story (and perhaps we're at a point where we _need_ to
believe in a hero-inventor), but I don't think inaccuracy actually serves us
well.

~~~
Swizec
With Jobs gone, we need a new hero-inventor to worship. Such is life.

Seriously though, when I was a kid I would read about "famous scientists of
old" every night. They were my rockstars. Edison, Watt, Lister, the list goes
on. I had a book about them, their lives, their inventions. Everything. I must
have read that book a thousand times before I was 14.

Then one day when I was 18 I visited the London technical museum. In it was a
Watt exhibit. It said "Watt bought a lot of patents, he invented a few small
things, but his main innovation was leasing steam engines instead of selling
them."

It was then that I realized all those scientists of old I worship weren't
scientists at all. They were good engineers. Excellent integrators of other
people's inventions and work. Magnificent funders of scientists' work.

But most of all they were businessmen. Because it doesn't matter who invents a
thing, what matters is who uses the thing to bring _actual_ change to people.

It doesn't matter who invented the lightbulb. It matters who invented the
electricity grid so people could actually use lightbulbs in their homes.

~~~
Nadya
When I was young, I had a large amount of respect for Edison.

When I found out the truth - that he was a businessman more than an inventor -
it was quite a let down. Many of his ideas were stolen from people who worked
beneath him and the publicity campaign for DC power over AC power is simply
terrible.

>it doesn't matter who invents a thing, what matters is who uses the thing to
bring actual change to people.

And this is the sad truth of many famous 'inventors'.

~~~
RockyMcNuts
He invented the modern research lab, which is kind of a big deal. Regardless
of how many or few of the creative breakthroughs were his personally, he
pushed a lot of technology forward, he was sort of the ultimate maker and
deserves a great deal of credit.

~~~
Nadya
So he should be credited for his achievements and not falsely accredited for
others' achivements.

My respect for him was one of an inventor. The problem is everything I had
respected him for inventing - he hadn't even invented!

It's like being told Superman isn't actually Superman, he's Batman. Sure, he's
still a superhero and might do awesome things. But I like Superman, I'm not a
big fan of Batman. *

*this is a terrible analogy, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to convey.

------
anon4this1
Luck?

You can become a millionaire or even a billionaire by luck.

Risking an entire 9 figure fortune in order to run both 1) a business that
most at the time thought was impossible (mass produced electric cars) 2) a
space company that most at the time thought was impossible to do without being
a nation state

and managing to against the odds make both of them succeed and become 11
figure companies is not luck. it is immeasurable slog, vision and competence.

there are tens of thousands of people worth hundreds of millions and ~1500
billionaires on earth, can you name a single one taking anything like the
risks and producing the results elon is producing?

~~~
tempestn
While both side are impressive, I think the risk is really the big story. Of
those people worth at least tens of millions, how many would be willing to
risk their entire fortune on a venture that, in their honest assessment, would
_probably fail_? (There's a quote somewhere, where Musk actually says he
expected SpaceX to fail, but did it anyway because of how great it could be if
it succeeded.)

I bet the number is pretty damn small. A big part of how he got to this point
is simply the fact that almost no one else would have been willing to try.
Beyond that, he must have been extremely skillful _and_ lucky to actually
succeed.

------
appden
> In late October 2001, Elon Musk went to Moscow to buy an intercontinental
> ballistic missile.

Has there ever been a better introductory sentence?

~~~
toomuchtodo
I don't have a link to further into that story, but after being screwed by the
Russians on the price (they did a bait and switch, increasing the price four
fold when he arrived), he asked on the plane ride home "How hard can it be to
build a rocket?".

EDIT: To add to this, the US government created sanctions against Russia,
causing the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to say "Use a
trampoline to get to the ISS then" [1], which prompted Elon to unveil the
Dragon Mk2 crew capsule: "Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the
new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on w @NASA. No
trampoline needed" [2].

I would not want to be on Elon's bad side.

[1] [http://space.io9.com/russia-to-nasa-try-jumping-to-iss-
on-a-...](http://space.io9.com/russia-to-nasa-try-jumping-to-iss-on-a-
trampoline-1570387515)

[2]
[https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461279062837968897](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/461279062837968897)

~~~
solarexplorer
I remember reading it here: [http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a16681/elon-
musk-interv...](http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a16681/elon-musk-
interview-1212/)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Ahh! That's it! Thank you!

------
methodover
What an absolutely riveting, brilliant article. The title doesn't give it
justice -- this article is about a dream, and about a man's relentless pursuit
of that dream. Incredible.

I wonder what SpaceX's long term goals are. Much of the article suggests that
it's Mars. But SpaceX probably wants to do something that's profitable, right?
Missions to Mars won't be profitable for probably a very long time, if ever. I
wonder about something like a mining operation on the Moon or other near-Earth
objects?

Right now, it's hard to imagine anything more profitable than deploying
satellites.

~~~
tbabb
> I wonder what SpaceX's long term goals are.

Mars, vis-a-vis making buttloads of money on Earth.

Elon is positioning to launch a 4k-strong comsat fleet, with which he hopes to
commandeer a large fraction of Earth's internet backhaul traffic (in addition
to securing millions+ of internet customers around the planet, otherwise too
expensive and sparse to reach with cables).

My bet is that it will turn out to be SpaceX's biggest financial play, and
that the private + NASA orbital launch contracts are functioning as a way to
get someone to pay for rocket development and build the necessary capital for
the telecom move.

Although once a reusable first stage has been demonstrated, I imagine launch
costs will drop by a large fraction, and possibly open up a new rush of
investment and innovation in low Earth orbit-- with Musk selling pickaxes and
shovels.

It's possible if more people knew the price drop that's about to happen in
rocket launches, they'd be scrambling to launch their _own_ 4k-satellite
constellations, and that Musk's inside knowledge and control gives him a huge
head start into the business.

~~~
wj
My first thought on the satellite network he is launching was to help power
self-driving Teslas.

------
tbabb
I get two things out of this article:

1) Elon's tremendous luck. He took _huge_ gambles, repeatedly, and they all
turned up heads. They were all very worthy ambitions, but nine times out of
ten, they would not have worked out. I don't condemn him for taking those
risks at all (in fact I applaud it), but:

There are probably plenty of entrepreneurs out there with comparable
intelligence or ambition, but when they fall on their faces, we just shake our
heads at them and say "well, that's what you get". But each of them simply
wasn't lucky enough to have an Elon story. We should keep this in mind either
while heaping adoration on Musk or while rationalizing someone else's failure.

2) Elon almost didn't succeed on more than one occasion because somebody else
was actively trying to screw him over. And that (human shittiness) is one of
the stochastic forces that made his success so unlikely. The world would have
been a worse place and civilization would have been set back, all by the
selfish behavior of some VC company. It is reprehensible that lollipop-yanking
and sandcastle-stomping is not only actively impeding our society's progress,
but _despite this_ , it is actually tolerated or even _revered_.

~~~
titanomachy
True. If NASA had awarded the contract to someone else and SpaceX had folded,
we wouldn't be saying "look at that brilliant guy who got dealt a bad hand",
we'd be saying "look at that asshole who earned a fortune and then blew it all
on an idea that everyone warned him was nuts"... or more likely "who? never
heard of him".

------
sumedh
If anyone is interested to hear Justin Musk's viewpoint

[http://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-
Ste...](http://www.quora.com/How-can-I-be-as-great-as-Bill-Gates-Steve-Jobs-
Elon-Musk-and-Richard-Branson)

~~~
js2
Thanks for the link, but I thouught the third answer from James Altucher about
Richard Branson was the real gold on that page.

~~~
vidarh
Altucher writes well, but I find it hard to overlook the relatively large
inaccuracies in the bits I do know about, and keep wondering what else is
equally inaccurate. E.g. he seems to think "Virgin Air" (the actual airlines
are Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin America) is Bransons main business, but
Virgin Group consists of a huge number of companies, and Virgin Atlantic
revenue only accounts for about 10% of the groups aggregate revenue (Virgin
Atlantic revenue is about 20% of Virgin Group revenue, but Virgin Group only
owns about half of Virgin Atlantic)

EDIT: The story about how Branson supposedly got the idea also sounds
apocryphal. In 1984 Branson was rich already - in fact Virgin Atlantic became
profitable in large part because Virgin Records was doing well enough that
Branson could use Virgin Records to finance lease of a secondhand plane for
the company to start out with.. What was to become Virgin Atlantic was started
by Randolph Fields and Alan Hellary before Branson got involved. It's not
impossible Branson was thinking of setting up an airline before that, but he
didn't start Virgin Atlantic until after he'd been approached by Fields.

~~~
paublyrne
Branson tells that story in his autobiography, Losing My Virginity. It's
probably not fanciful to think that it happened given the crazy things he has
done in his life.

The stories about how he got off his earlier enterprises - Student and Virgin
Records - are possibly more inspirational because as you say he had already
success to back up the air venture, but that success had really been built out
of nothing.

~~~
vidarh
It's quite possible he did something like that, but I think the connection to
Virgin Atlantic at most would be that it may have been what made him willing
to fund it. It's a matter of court records that he did not start Virgin
Atlantic alone - it took a court case before he paid Fields, who had already
started and operated an airline, the dividend payments he was due.

I agree you with you regarding his earlier ventures. There's the famous quote
of his (not sure whether it's real or not) as an answer to a question of how
to become a millionaire: Become a billionaire and start an airline.

With respect to his earlier ventures, I particularly like the story of how he
at one point needed additional finance for Virgin Records and contrary to what
most would do _dressed down_ more than usual for his visit with one of the
most stiff-upper-lip banks in London - his reasoning apparently that if he'd
shown up in a suit, they'd know he was in trouble, so he went out of his way
to appear like couldn't care less if they gave him the loan.

------
eellpp
There are lots of point of views around the thoughts:

\- He did not invent anything

\- He had privileged background, education and luck

\- He takes extreme risk but has background to fall upon etc etc ... So he is
not great or a hero.

The fact of matter is that he has a personality and attitude for getting
things done. He dreams of something, faces extreme challenges but still
pursues it and gets it done. What matters is this attitude of never giving up.
The extreme odds against which the person fights, makes him stand apart. But
people with similar attitude, fighting against extreme odds can be found in
all walks of life. Whether we find that narrative interesting or not depends
on "our" background/interest etc.

Example could be someone with no means for basic education and learns on his
own to become a great mathematician(or a architect who turns desert into
greenfield) or someone who becomes a great artist/sportsman/writer(basically
excellence in anything) against extreme odds.

I bet people with this kind of attitude don't care whether you find them
heroic or not. The may even not care to read things like this. Fighting on
this (whether its heroic or not) is just silly. Some people will find the
story of single mother, working multiple jobs to provide for her family more
heroic. But then that's good for them and does not steal the fact that Elon
musk is hero for lot of us.

------
cspags
Here's the video of the first Falcon 1 launch that reaches orbit. The series
of cheers at each milestone, as the article mentions, is pretty awesome.
[https://youtu.be/8FQhtMrUQlE?t=18m34s](https://youtu.be/8FQhtMrUQlE?t=18m34s)

------
mrt0mat0
the man is pure inspiration. 10 years ago, i was asked who i admired, and
couldn't think of a single answer. Maybe that's sad on my part, but when asked
now, he's at the top of my list.

~~~
baby
Definitely one of the most inspiring man when it comes to success.

For research I would say Stephen Hawking

For education I would say Neil deGrasse Tyson

( I would put Neil in the inspiring "anti-racism" category as well
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLtPWPqsjA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQLtPWPqsjA)
)

~~~
ValG
Don't forget Bill Gates. While many may (rightly) fault his business ethics
and tactics, he is doing more for the bottom 20% of humanity than most others.

~~~
seiji
But, he set back all of computing 10 to 20 years (1995-2010 "dark ages"
approximately) just for the sake of greed, dominance, and profit. Was it worth
it?

~~~
Joeri
I used to think this myself, but reading up on computing history I've somewhat
changed my mind. If Bill Gates hadn't been born and Microsoft hadn't existed,
what might have happened instead?

IBM would have still made the PC, only using another CP/M clone as OS, and
would have owned that market because the other vendor wouldn't have written as
clever a deal as Gates did. Two possible outcomes of that: either IBM would
have replaced microsoft as center stone of the PC market and been no better
and probably worse than microsoft (they were considered pretty evil in their
day), or more likely IBM would have failed to create the PC platform (because
that was really Microsoft's doing), and the personal computing market would
have remained deeply fragmented on both hardware and software levels, tools
for gamers and tinkerers but not business computing. In either case, OS/2
wouldn't have happened in the way that it did (especially since microsoft was
a key developer behind that). Linux would have had a significantly tougher
time happening, either because of IBM's control of the PC market (including
the hardware), or in the fragmentation scenario because the lack of a hardware
standard would have made it more difficult to build a community of OS
enthusiasts. Apple would have probably gone bankrupt during Jobs' wilderness
years. Without ms office propping it up as the only desktop alternative to
DOS/windows it wouldn't have stood a chance given how incompetent apple's
management was at the time.

So, maybe microsoft slowed down the personal computing market, or maybe they
sped it up, or maybe they didn't change the timeline at all. I reckon there's
no way to tell unless you have a time machine.

I wonder if Gates feels guilty though. His current efforts are laudable, but
it always seems like he's compensating for something.

~~~
fragmede
It's impossible to know as a whole, but you can still look at individual
actions and say they were bad for the industry.

Probably one of the worst and most egregious is Microsoft's use of a "per
processor" fee in the 90's which they only stopped when the government forced
them to. If you were an OEM like Dell or HP, and sold Windows on _any_
computers, you had to pay Microsoft for a copy of Windows on _all_ computers
you sold, even ones without Windows.

This anti-competitive move meant alternative operating systems, like BeOS, or
OS2/Warp, or even Linux weren't really an option. BeOS died, not on any
technical merits, but because Microsoft forced it out via other means. Linux
only survived because its openness made it hard to kill.

------
DigitalSea
Wow, reading through this story and you can't help but notice some comparative
traits to the late Steve Jobs. The incredibly high work ethic, not taking no
for an answer and being highly optimistic in the face of bankruptcy. Those
familiar with Steve Jobs and the story of Apple will know that Apple found
themselves in this exact situation, a man with a vision burning through cash
and not really making any ground - only for them to become a highly profitable
company.

After all is said and done, SpaceX is not only profitable, but Musk somehow
remains its largest stakeholder, even though he went through a desperate
period of trying to raise more capital. Seems taking on debt helped Musk
retain SpaceX's majority stakeholder (a brilliant move if you know you're
going to succeed).

This is probably one of the most inspiring things I have read in a very long
time. A very well-written article that doesn't skip on the details. Absolutely
riveting, I was supposed to be working and I could not stop reading this. We
need more opportunistic thinkers like Musk, everyone thought he was mental or
was having a breakdown, but he proved his detractors wrong by not giving up
(even when it looked like bankruptcy was the likely option).

------
toxican
This is a really great article. As a casual observer of SpaceX, it seemed to
me that they just came out of nowhere a few years ago. It's really great to
see a story about their origins.

------
parennoob
From the article:

> Downey appreciated that Musk was not a foul-smelling, fidgety, coder whack
> job.

Always good to know how the rest of us "coders" are looked upon by Bloomberg,
and presumably the average person while they are busy singing Elon Musk's
praises.

~~~
dfgray
> by Bloomberg

I got the impression that was Downey's expectation, not Bloomberg's. People
don't smell or fidget in Hollywood..

~~~
ende
Not after being doused in makeup and qualudes, at least.

~~~
Raphmedia
Qualudes? What year is it?

~~~
Exuma
Quaaludes! The most fun word in the world to spell.

~~~
gwern
It is a fun word, isn't it? 'Whenever I become anxious I don't have qualia, I
take some Quaaludes.'

------
BrandonMarc
Great article. Even without mention Elon's drunk-tweeting about Catherine the
Great.

[http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/12/30/elon-musk-tweets-
on-c...](http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/12/30/elon-musk-tweets-on-chinese-
space-ambitions-catherine-the-greats-horse/)

------
alexqgb
If we're doing a round-up of great Musk pieces, the interview Ross Andersen
did for Aeon should not be missed.

[http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-elon-musk-
interview-o...](http://aeon.co/magazine/technology/the-elon-musk-interview-on-
mars/)

------
ljk
bloomberg video documentary on Musk:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh45igK4Esw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh45igK4Esw)

------
bpicolo
This was an incredible article. Just awesome.

------
bshanks
"they were in the process of finalizing the paperwork for the funding round
when Musk noticed a problem. VantagePoint Capital Partners had signed all of
the paperwork except for one crucial page...Musk believed that Salzman’s
tactics were part of a mission to bankrupt Tesla. Musk feared that
VantagePoint would oust him as CEO, recapitalize Tesla, and emerge as the
major owner of the carmaker."

From other sources it seems that VantagePoint may have owned less than 10% of
the company. I am surprised that a minority shareholder could legally have the
power to block an additional funding round; couldn't the other shareholders
have brought it to a vote and overrule VantagePoint? Was the reason this
wasn't done just the lack of time, or could VantagePoint really have had some
procedural right to block this?

------
m52go
Has anyone else experienced slow scrolling and no visible scrollbar? I'm on
Chrome on a Nexus 6.

I fear it's a ploy to keep my eyeballs on the site for as long as possible.
Not a fan of this at all.

~~~
MBCook
Same thing on my iPhone. I gave up trying to read the article because of it.

Even safaris built-in reader mode didn't work, it wouldn't look past the first
section of the article.

I'm guessing they're playing games with the DOM using JavaScript or something
like that. Doesn't really matter, it completely broke to usability of reading
the article.

I sent them a comment about it, I hope they listen. I really dislike this new
trend of websites implementing their own custom scrolling behavior. I've yet
to see one that improved on the default behavior in iOS.

------
redmaverick
When I was going through the article, these two quotes came to my mind.

 _“There are some people who just get what they want in the world. If you want
to start a startup you have to be one of those people. You can’t be passive
and wishy-washy,”_ – Paul Graham

 _" A formidable person is one who seems like they'll get what they want,
regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way."_\- pg

------
marze
Why is this somewhat pointless comment voted so highly, everyone jealous?

You could certainly argue that Musk was quite fortunate at certain key points,
but really, who else has accomplished anything remotely similar?

------
agumonkey
One thing for sure is that after going through all this, he must be pretty zen
now. He has talent(s), funding, market, trust, ...

------
jonknee
Can't wait for the book version next week.

------
seanwessmith
What was the moldy Russian book on rockets that Elon Musk was reading???

