Transcript 0:00 · SpaceX successfully Landing its Starship 0:03 · Rocket yesterday marking a milestone for 0:05 · the company our next guest calling it 0:06 · one of the most important moments in 0:08 · space history for more we're bringing in 0:10 · Rick tumlinson founder of space fund 0:13 · Rick it is great to see you so let's 0:14 · start right there Rick you know we all 0:16 · watch SpaceX over this weekend and I did 0:18 · see you post on X Rick you said listen 0:20 · this is a historic moment how come walk 0:22 · us through it 0:24 · rick what we're witnessing here is uh 0:27 · and thank you for having me is um you 0:30 · know it's sort of the combination of the 0:33 · the railroads the steam ships airplanes 0:36 · all in one like in a 100 years from now 0:39 · people are going to look back at this 0:40 · period of time um as sort of when 0:44 · Humanity breaks out into space I know if 0:46 · you're a Star Trek fan but this is when 0:47 · the Vulcans start looking at us and 0:49 · going hey maybe they should join the 0:50 · Federation right uh what I mean by that 0:53 · is the idea of 0:56 · reusability um is critical to what it is 1:00 · um we want to do in space what you just 1:02 · witnessed was the equivalent of a 1:05 · skyscraper with a smaller skyscraper on 1:08 · top of it fly to space launch the 1:10 · smaller skyscraper fly back down and get 1:14 · captured by two pairs of giant 1:16 · Chopsticks it's 1:18 · reusability the fact that this happened 1:20 · almost begins to make every other rocket 1:22 · on the planet Obsolete and so now what 1:25 · Rick what what does come 1:27 · next well they're going to do a bunch 1:29 · more flights you know i' I've I've been 1:31 · down there uh where they launched this 1:33 · thing and the little Starship vehicle 1:35 · that was on top last time I was down 1:37 · there like seven more of those um and 1:40 · their their approach is to build it 1:41 · break it learn from it build it again so 1:44 · whenever your your viewers see these 1:46 · things blow up understand that what 1:47 · they're doing what they say in space is 1:49 · we got good data they're going to learn 1:52 · more they're going to get better at it 1:54 · uh Elon will probably then take that 1:56 · once it's starting to fly or SpaceX will 1:58 · they'll probably start flying 2:00 · their uh you know their communication 2:02 · satellites their 2:03 · starlinks um then if it blows up it's 2:05 · not a problem they'll get good at it 2:07 · develop what we call a Heritage um and 2:10 · then they'll be able to start getting 2:11 · into more complex payloads one of the 2:13 · other big things is they need to be able 2:15 · to refuel in space to be able to go to 2:18 · the destinations like the moon or 2:20 · Mars who would you um argue Rick poses 2:23 · potential competitive rist to musk at 2:26 · this point in either us or Europe or 2:28 · both 2:30 · um not so much Europe in the US it would 2:32 · be blue origin which is Jeff bezos's 2:34 · company he's been moving slow but steady 2:37 · uh he's coming up uh there's a guy named 2:39 · Peter Beck and his company rocket lab um 2:42 · which is not a billionaire financed 2:44 · company uh they're coming up really fast 2:46 · uh Peter comes from New Zealand he was a 2:48 · dishwasher worked his way into the field 2:51 · uh there's an American company called 2:52 · Firefly here in Texas there are a bunch 2:55 · of them rolling up and then there's 2:57 · China China has at last count roughly 3:00 · four companies that are working on 3:02 · reusability right now so they're coming 3:04 · up fast you know Venture investors Rick 3:07 · are much more interested in this space 3:08 · now excited about this space I'm curious 3:11 · how much how much credit do you give 3:13 · Elon Musk for 3:15 · that I give him a lot of credit he you 3:17 · know he's um he's a he came in with this 3:21 · goal single-handedly he wants to go to 3:23 · Mars and get people there and he is very 3:26 · obsessed and driven by that goal um 3:29 · whereas the Aerospace industry is like 3:31 · you know Don't Rock the Boat keep the 3:32 · money coming you know don't do anything 3:34 · too radical and so what he's shown us is 3:37 · that just by remember the old Apple 3:39 · commercial thinking differently you 3:42 · could do something that's incredible um 3:45 · but again I the entire community that I 3:47 · know of the commercial Community the the 3:50 · uh the private Enterprise we're moving 3:52 · in that direction all of us so once we 3:55 · get past there Robert heinlin the old 3:57 · science fiction writer said if you you 3:59 · know once you make to orbit you're 4:00 · halfway to anywhere so this is the big 4:02 · one we get this working the entire solar 4:05 · system opens up and finally Rick what 4:07 · about these headlines I saw reports that 4:09 · California rejecting bids for for more 4:12 · frequent SpaceX launch SpaceX launches 4:15 · I'm curious what you made of those 4:17 · reports how much you think that was that 4:19 · was some type of um criticism of musk 4:22 · himself went into that decision 4:24 · making yeah that's a touchy topic um you 4:27 · know I I personally don't I don't share 4:29 · many of his political views right now uh 4:31 · but he is a friend and um I think that 4:35 · that's a challenge it's a real challenge 4:37 · I I when he just took over Twitter I uh 4:40 · tweeted at him before it became X and I 4:43 · said dude you just got one job and 4:44 · that's get us off the planet a thousand 4:46 · years from now that's all anybody's 4:48 · going to care about did you get us off 4:50 · the planet and break us out uh we need 4:52 · to see that happen and we need Politics 4:55 · on both sides to get out of the equation 4:57 · both sides let's just go 5:00 · Rick great to have you on the show thank 5:02 · you so much for joining us in your 5:03 · perspective appreciate it
Musk’s next step should be a private space platform for rocket assembly in space. Once this becomes a reality, he can simply boost things to the platform, assemble there, and then shoot things out with minimal effort.
He’s going to be a trillionaire.
He’s right. Set the politics aside and LET’S GO!
but NASA said you can’t reuse rockets
I think it’s funny that all those rockets look like they came from 1950’s B movies.
Up until recently there was no need for hundreds of tonnes of payload to orbit. The era of big space stations as a cold war dick measuring contest ended. Starlink changed the game, now you see the huge implications of having high-speed real-time global data coms for drones and the military. Plus cat videos in the outback. Now that direct to cell is proven those Starlink birds need to be twice as big 2000kg each and there is 12,000 planned with upwards of 40,000 total just for Starlink V2/3 the Chinese are also putting up a virtually identical system to Starlink with 12,000 to 30,000 using the Long March 9 a nearly bolt for bolt copy of Starship liquid methane and tower catching system too. then Amazon and the ESA also plan mega systems too. There is a trillion dollar market for heavy lift and SpaceX has the lead by at least 5 years. China already stole the idea and size/scale of Starship but are playing catch up with engine tech they prolly steal Raptor 3 plans too with honey pot spies inside Starbase would be my guess. Going to Mars is Elons dream heavy lift is the market for global data and thus military dominance. Drones with datalinks and AI are the future of warfare and AI robot soldiers too those cute hominid robots could just as easily pack a M4 or M240 vs a broom or a mop or a tray of drinks. Those need datalinks too even with hunt and kill AI operating systems. There was a YouTube guy who used some already available software and a drone to send it into autokill mode, first mode was track and find any human from above then kamikaze dive into them once unleashed it did just that it was programmed to swerve off at the last seconds so it repeatedly did kamikaze dives at everyone outside. The second mode was targeted at a single person he selected one person and locked the AI onto that person’s spectral signature and the drone then tracked them as they moved and tired to get away then on command it kamikaze dive onto that single target. The last mode was assassin mode he showed the AI an image of a face the drone then went hunting for that facial match it would capture an image of the faces in the scene compare every one to its target list and when it found a match it did it’s kamikaze thing shockingly effective. It only takes 20 grams or so of military grade rdx to take someone’s head off. Having a drone that can carry a kilo with disposable mini grenades means multiple kills per drone before its final dive into the last target. Dodging a hundred plus mph drone that’s locked onto your image is not going to be easy less so if it drops or fires a projectile at you from a distance at supersonic speed think shotgun sized shell throwing a aluminium slug with 30g of RDX at you at 800fps a 4 inch barrel could do that add in a revolver type chamber with 6-8 rounds hang that under said assassin drone and 9 people are having bad days. You can make the launcher recoilless with that set up too have the rounds vent gas to the rear like a mini bazooka revolver. There is also video from Russia of course where a guy attached a Glock 9mm to a powered swivel under a drop and a servo for the trigger he was flying around popping balloons and milk jugs with that set up. Think of a autokill drone with a G19 and 33 round mag strapped under it shooting at the faces in it’s kill folder from 100 feet up you get the idea how wars are going to be fought from now on.
Starship/Superheavy has yet to put so much as a microgram of payload in orbit.