It's Not Rocket Science
A podcast exploring the life arcs of smart, creative, driven people who helped Elon Musk and SpaceX revolutionize the space industry. How did they get there? What was it like? What world are they creating now?
Episodes
Boris Lipchin - Only Your Worst Day Matters
An interview with former SpaceX Dragon engineer Boris Lipchin about cold-calling his way into a flight software internship, reading raw flight code within spitting distance of the ISS, being told he was wrong by Elon, and bringing SpaceX-style first-principles thinking to healthcare. And why only your worst day matters.
Trip Harriss - It's Full of Wigs
An interview with SpaceX director of spaceport integration Trip Harriss about quitting trumpet for Star Trek, the internship SpaceX forgot to post, aiming a rocket at a military base, making Elon laugh, and wedding rings forged from a landed Falcon 9. Time is the most valuable resource — it is not renewable.
Ted Cizma - I'm Just a Cook
An interview with SpaceX executive chef Ted Cizma about butcher shop beginnings, feeding 3,500 people in an Aspen parking lot, building a restaurant inside a rocket factory, breakfast burritos in mission control, and ending childhood hunger. Live right, set a good example, and hope they are paying attention.
Chris Thompson - Employee Number Two
An interview with SpaceX employee number two Chris Thompson about garage rockets, an explosion in Garvey's backyard, beating Jeff Bezos in court, melting Elon's shoes in acetone, and Phantom's unfinished business. Work hard, fail fast, but don't bring the stress home.
Laura Rose Plaxico - Rockets or Cheese?
An interview with mechanical engineer Laura Rose Plaxico about SpaceX, exploding batteries, making cheese in The Philippines, a Keurig for frozen yogurt, robot cars, and putting your pride aside. A theme of humility and learning throughout.
Tim Buzza - Leading by Example
Tim Buzza led test and launch operations at SpaceX for 14 years, standing up and operating test sites, launch sites, and assembly lines from California to Kwajalein. Every step of the way, Tim not only demanded technical excellence, but brought out the best in everyone who worked for and with him. In our discussion we cover Tim's journey to and through SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Rocket L
Tom Mueller - Employee Number One
Tom Mueller became SpaceX employee number one through a quirk of paperwork, and went on to design every SpaceX rocket engine from Merlin to Raptor, all because a high school math teacher asked him if he'd rather design airplanes than maintain them. In this episode, Tom and I discuss the role of optimism in project scheduling, the birth and evolution of Starship, and how Tom founded Impuls
Bulent Altan - The Right Type of Challenging
Bulent Altan started his career at SpaceX in 2004, fresh out of Bob Twiggs' CubeSat lab at Stanford, joining the small team working on Falcon 1. He stayed long enough to put his technical fingerprints on every major SpaceX development. Now he's the founding partner at Alpine Space Ventures, a venture capital fund making hands-on investments in European space startups. Even as a VC, he "ge
Krishna Pribadi - From Merlin to VO2 Max
Krishna Pribadi spent six years on the test stand at SpaceX in McGregor, Texas — Merlin 1D, the first OctaWeb, F9R Dev1, the first booster recovery, and finally Raptor. He left in 2019 and has since worked on cargo drones, traveled back to Indonesia to trace his family history, race-engineered in the Moto America Superbike paddock, and started a stealth-mode human-performance coaching pra
Hans Koenigsmann - From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line
Hans Koenigsmann: From Falcon 1 to the Kármán LineHans Koenigsmann was SpaceX employee #4 and the company's first VP of Avionics, Guidance, Navigation and Control, and later its chief engineer for launch and VP of Flight Reliability. He spent nineteen and a half years at SpaceX before retiring in 2021. In November, he flew to the Kármán line on Blue Origin's New Shepard alongside Michi Be
Paul Mahacek - Climate is Hot Right Now
Entrepreneur and former SpaceX enginer Paul Mahacek speaks about his engineering career and his latest project AtmoCooling, which seeks to re-green coastal deserts. Along the way, we stop in France, California, Antarctica, and Kwajalein Atoll.
Joel Brinton - That West Wing Moment
Former SpaceX engineer Joel Brinton discusses breaking into the space industry, hanging upside down under rocket engines, sending his DNA to space, having lunch with Elon Musk, the risks of space faring (including exploding rocket engines), ADD, imposture syndrome, and learning from AI. And that one West Wing moment.
Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure
Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward
Dolly Singh - Unicorn Herding
An interview with expert Unicorn Herder Dolly Singh about SpaceX, life after SpaceX, feminism, and the unifying power of technology. And plumbers are millionaires.
Endless Playtime - Erin Gatling and Casey Schilling
An interview with engineers Erin Gatling and Casey Schilling about SpaceX, raising kids on a boat, sheltering in place in Baja, and what life is about.
The Impossible Drive and Work Life Balance - Peter Dohm
An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center.
