It's Not Rocket Science
by Jeff Ward
Latest episode
Laura Crabtree - This Spacesuit's Supposed to Make You Look Cooler
Laura Crabtree - This Spacesuit's Supposed to Make You Look Cooler
About this podcast
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
- Laura Crabtree - This Spacesuit's Supposed to Make You Look Cooler · 43 min · Episode 17An interview with Epsilon3 co-founder and CEO Laura Crabtree about her 11 years in SpaceX mission operations, training the Demo-2 astronauts, replacing paper procedures in…
- Boris Lipchin - Only Your Worst Day Matters · 45 min · Episode 16An 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…
- Trip Harriss - It's Full of Wigs · 48 min · Episode 15An 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…
- Ted Cizma - I'm Just a Cook · 37 min · Episode 14An 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…
- Chris Thompson - Employee Number Two · 41 min · Episode 13An 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…
- Laura Rose Plaxico - Rockets or Cheese? · 30 min · Episode 12An 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…
- Tim Buzza - Leading by Example · 44 min · Episode 11Tim 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…
- Tom Mueller - Employee Number One · 45 min · Episode 10Tom 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…
- Bulent Altan - The Right Type of Challenging · 38 min · Episode 9Bulent 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…
- Krishna Pribadi - From Merlin to VO2 Max · 32 min · Episode 8Krishna 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…
- Hans Koenigsmann - From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line · 42 min · Episode 7Hans Koenigsmann: From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line Hans Koenigsmann was SpaceX employee #4 and the company's first VP of Avionics, Guidance, Navigation and Control, and later…
- Paul Mahacek - Climate is Hot Right Now · 29 min · Episode 6Entrepreneur 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…
- Joel Brinton - That West Wing Moment · 28 min · Episode 5Former 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…
- Dolly Singh - Unicorn Herding · 36 min · Episode 3An 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 · 25 min · Episode 2An 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 · 22 min · Episode 1An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center.
