Elon Musk’s Vision for the Future [Entire Talk]
Elon Musk, SpaceX
In conversation with: Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

The iconic entrepreneur behind SpaceX, Tesla Motors and Paypal shares his predictions for artificial intelligence, renewable energy and space exploration, in conversation with DFJ General Partner Steve Jurvetson at Stanford on Oct. 7, 2015. Discussion on Musk’s journey from his first Internet startup in the mid-nineties to his dream of a Mars colony in the next 20 years.

Content: Elon Musk’s Vision for the Future

Computing More Advanced Than Space Exploration

Switching from Scholar to Entrepreneur

Reigniting the Dream of Apollo

Overcoming Setbacks and Saving Tesla

Aim for Usefulness Optimization

Looking Into the Future

Balancing Form and Functionality

Imperfections Aren't Always Important

When We Colonize Mars

About SpaceX

American aerospace company founded in 2002 that helped usher in the era of commercial spaceflight. It was the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space Station (ISS). Headquarters are in Hawthorne, California.

SpaceX was formed by entrepreneur Elon Musk in the hopes of revolutionizing the aerospace industry and making affordable spaceflight a reality. The company entered the arena with the Falcon 1 rocket, a two-stage liquid-fueled craft designed to send small satellites into orbit. The Falcon 1 was vastly cheaper to build and operate than its competitors. Part of the rocket’s cost-effectiveness was made possible by the SpaceX-developed Merlin engine. SpaceX also focused on making reusable rockets, other launch vehicles are generally made for one-time use.

In March 2006 SpaceX made its first Falcon 1 launch. In August of that year SpaceX was a winner of a NASA competition for funds to build and demonstrate spacecraft that could potentially service the ISS after the decommissioning of the space shuttle. September 2008 SpaceX became the first privately owned company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit. Three months later it won a NASA contract for servicing the ISS that was worth more than $1 billion.

In 2010 SpaceX first launched its Falcon 9, a bigger craft so named for its use of nine engines, and the following year it broke ground on a launch site for the Falcon Heavy, a craft the company hoped would be the first to break the $1,000-per-pound-to-orbit cost barrier and that might one day be used to transport astronauts into deep space. In December 2010 the company reached another milestone, becoming the first commercial company to release a spacecraft the Dragon capsule into orbit and successfully return it to Earth. Dragon again made history on May 25, 2012, when it became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS, to which it successfully delivered cargo. In August that year, SpaceX announced that it had won a contract from NASA to develop a successor to the space shuttle that would transport astronauts into space.

The Falcon 9 was designed so that its first stage could be reused. In 2015 a Falcon 9 first stage successfully returned to Earth near its launch site. Beginning in 2016, SpaceX also began using drone ships for rocket stage landings. A rocket stage that had returned to Earth was successfully reused in a 2017 launch. That same year, a Dragon capsule was reused on a flight to the ISS. The Falcon Heavy rocket had its first test flight in 2018. Two of the three first stages landed successfully; the third hit the water near the drone ship. That Falcon Heavy did not carry a satellite but instead placed into orbit around the Sun a Tesla Roadster with a mannequin in a space suit buckled into the driver’s seat. The first operational flight of the Falcon Heavy launched on April 11, 2019.

In 2019 SpaceX began launching satellites for its Starlink service, which would provide satellite Internet service. As of 2022, more than 4,800 operational satellites orbit Earth, and more than 2,200 of them are part of Starlink.

The first crewed flight of a Dragon capsule to the ISS launched on May 30, 2020, with astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken. SpaceX also announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy–Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for several purposes, including providing fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. SpaceX planned to use the Starship for a flight around the Moon carrying Japanese businessman Maezawa Yusaku and several artists in 2023, for flights to land astronauts on the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis program, and eventually to launch settlers to Mars.

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