Thinking on Paper - Quantum Computing, AI and Space Technology Conversations How SpaceX Cut Launch Costs 97%: Space to Grow - Book Club, Ep. 1
SpaceX launches 135 rockets a year. NASA's shuttles launched five. SpaceX delivers cargo to orbit for $2,800 per kilo. The shuttles cost $90,000. In fifteen years, one company did what a government agency couldn't do in sixty.
We're reading Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier by Brendan Rosseau and Matthew C. Weinzierl. This is the book that explains how private companies broke NASA's sixty-year monopoly on space.
WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER:
How the Apollo program's end created the opening for private space companies
Why NASA's shuttle program failed at $1.5 billion per launch
The 2003 Columbia disaster that forced government to open the gates
How COTS contracts changed everything by putting financial risk on private companies
Elon Musk's failed Russia trip and the decision to build SpaceX from scratch
The story of three rocket explosions, $100 million left, and a fourth rocket built from spare parts
Why someone had to climb inside a rocket mid-flight to hammer out dents
Blue Origin's different approach: Jeff Bezos at five years old watching Apollo, then building slowly and quietly
The four principles behind SpaceX's success: iteration, vertical integration, reusability, and culture
How SpaceX cut costs 97% while maintaining perfect launch records
Why it's harder to work at SpaceX than get into Harvard
PERFECT FOR LISTENERS INTERESTED IN:
The economics of space and how market forces beat government monopolies
SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the commercial space revolution
Innovation strategy and how to disrupt calcified systems
The future of orbital infrastructure and space-based industry
Economic policy and public-private partnerships
Entrepreneurship and building companies that challenge incumbents
Technology disruption and first principles thinking
CHAPTERS COVERED: This episode breaks down chapters one through three: Blue Origin, SpaceX, and the inception point. We cover the three-act history of NASA and the birth of the private space industry.
COMING UP: Next episodes cover Artemis, Starship, supply and demand curves in space markets, property rights in space, the politics of orbital infrastructure, and the military space complex. We have former NASA engineers joining the show.
🚀 Get the book: Space to Grow by Brendan Rosseau and Matthew C. Weinzierl
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Cheers,
Mark and Jeremy
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TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Trailer
(01:02) Space To Grow
(01:55) Incorporate Space Into Your Thinking
(03:28) The Apollo Program Ends
(05:43) The NASA Budget & Shuttle Launches
(07:51) Bush & The Aldridge Commission
(08:36) COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation Services)
(10:27) Blue Origin, Bezos & O'Neill
(14:40) A Quick History Of SpaceX
(18:23) Falcon Blows Up
(20:24) Elon Sues The Airforce
(22:04) SpaceX Launch Costs
(23:45) The Honda Civic Of Space Rockets