I can’t shield my daughter from negativity. But I can continually redirect her attention to the rocket—showing her all the ways our species is incredible.
To begin--I very much identify with Tim's enthusiasm for space travel and making mankind an interplanetary species. I am an engineer in the space industry, and I can honestly say I would have been less likely to become one without Elon's kick, of our industry, in the butt.
Particularly, I'm in awe of what SpaceX has accomplished--I was actually at Cape Canaveral itself when they successfully landed the first orbital first-stage booster, on December 21, 2015. They are the greatest rocket company in history at this point, and we should all look forward to the amazing things they do in the years ahead. This is just the beginning.
It was awesome for Tim to bring his young daughter to see this moment. I am a relatively new father myself, and I want my son to see something like this one day. Perhaps he will follow in my footsteps, and also contribute to making mankind an interplanetary species.
Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way--
--This is why I am gravely concerned about what Elon Musk has become, outside of SpaceX and Tesla.
I am afraid what Elon's doing in other spheres could end up invalidating all the good he's done, and then some, at SpaceX and Tesla.
I've been following Tim Urban's writing for a long time, and I'm not quite sure he realizes the dangerous path Elon, his idol, is on--not just for himself but for all of us.
A constant concern of Tim's writing is, indeed, "the pessimism and petty cynicism that pervade our age of suffocating tribalism." Take a look at most of his blog posts the last five years and his book; they try harder than I've seen anyone try to construct a Unified Theory, if you will, of our dysfunctional politics. I don't agree with all of it, but I'm at least in awe of the effort.
Problem is, I find it difficult to characterize Elon's behavior and obsessions, particularly during the last several months, as anything other than the embodiment of that "suffocating tribalism" Tim abhors. And that's putting it kindly.
And forgive me, but it's getting harder and harder to compartmentalize that behavior of Elon's from his companies, his "vision", or his goals. Not only are they increasingly going to get intertwined, they're going to be on a collision course with each other.
I get that this is a Free Press article, and as such, it is going to be largely read by people who either agree with Elon's current politics or find them irrelevant. Or, by those like Tim, who have decided to keep their head down and laser-focus on the good things in life and humanity, rather than the bad things and the bad feelings they engender.
That's all well and good. Good feelings are good, and tribalism, in general, stinks. I hate it when people resort to positions, arguments, and thoughts whose only source of validity is the tribe, the leader, or the dictator. Or even the academic. At least in principle, we can align on that.
But Tim and I are alike in that we want a bright, unlimited, Solar-System-wide future for the human race. And I would challenge Tim--and everyone here--to consider the notion that it is going to be difficult for that to occur when a moiety of America comes to associate Elon and his vision with "retribution", across the United States.
It is going to be hard to characterize SpaceX as fostering "a major milestone in not just human history but life history", when its owner and driving force is allying himself with a figure openly calling much of America "the enemy within".
It is going to be near-impossible, in fact, to foster any enthusiasm for space exploration, space travel, or space settlement when opposition to Elon's heroes in government gets characterized as "disloyalty", "scum", "vermin", "treason", or worse.
Imagine the worst thing you've ever seen happen to someone for posting an off-color thing on Twitter and multiply it by a thousand. That's the vision--the dream, if you will--that Elon is aligning himself behind.
Tim would likely argue that he agrees with me--just that he thinks I'm wrong about Elon in particular. He would argue that Elon is defending the good and free things, both inside and outside Tesla and SpaceX, and that the people I'm referring to aren't nearly so bad as I'm painting them as. Even if he didn't think Elon was doing any of that, he would likely argue his achievements grant him a mulligan and indispensability anyway.
He has not seen the Elon I have.
The Elon I've seen of late has been an Elon spreading manifest lies that he has to know are untrue, about basically anyone in his way. He's been an Elon nodding and applauding to a politician threatening to use government to "straighten out the media", while calling himself a free speech absolutist. He's been an Elon trying to use self-declared dictators for his own goals, unaware that generally, you don't use dictators, or anyone promising to be one. They use you.
And for gosh's sake, *that matters*, even for wonderful achievements like this.
They threaten to negate every positive benefit those achievements confer on our country, and our species.
If Tim, or anyone like him, is frustrated reading this, and wants to say, "So what? This article isn't about Elon! It's about furthering humanity and reaching the stars, and sharing that with your *children*! Why do you have to make this about politics, like a tribalist? This is why I stopped listening to people like you!", etc.
*I get it*. I wish Elon and his dark turn could stay completely separated from wonderful testimonials like this one. Believe me, I have plenty of my own I could share, and did.
I wish SpaceX could just get us to Mars, and we could just focus on that, and remain blissfully unaffected by the negativity, nay, the *tribalism*, of today on Earth. I wish that Elon the "dark MAGA", and Elon the great visionary, were two separate people, just sharing the same body, name, and legal status.
I wish we could make an ideal society on Mars and not give a damn about Earth and all its godforsaken politics. And I wish Elon weren't sabotaging his own goals with his apparent descent into vengeful, grudgeful, obsession and retribution.
Heck, I wish many of the commenters here were right in their apparent conviction that Elon is the *real* fighter for freedom, and that his opponents were the "dictators" he maniacally, obsessively, claims they are. That would make all this mess make sense.
But they're not, he's not, and it doesn't. Sorry.
My point--Just as we can't but share our love and wonder at the advancements humanity is making with our kids, we also cannot keep them, or the space industry, or the quest to make humanity multiplanetary, sheltered from the fallout here. SpaceX, and its vision, will rise and fall inversely with Elon's current politics on Earth.
If Elon is to succeed in landing on Mars, he will do so in spite of, not because of, his turn of late. He should, for once, for his own sake, pray he fails at something for once. Specifically, in three weeks time.
If he does, we will all be able to take our kids to see the first SpaceX mission to Mars. And only if. Calling it.
Sorry for raining on the magical, high-minded parade here. Tim, continue to write wonderful things about space. Free Press commenters, let me have it, with both barrels. This is a free speech publication after all. And none of it will make what I wrote here any less right. :)
20 years ago my son and his friend started a rocket club in high school. They had heard of SpaceX and asked to get a tour. I chaperoned the trip. It was early days for the company. It was in a small warehouse south of LAX. I remember thinking Elon was just a bored billionaire with a hobby. Boy was I wrong. Keep on dreaming and innovating Elon. Our country needs it!
I’ve been Tim Urban fan for so long that I actually feel I know him like a relative. I have not yet read this article but want to say I am thrilled he’s publishing on The Free Press. What a great fit!
I’ve been a Tim fan for a long time…this is one of the best pieces he’s ever written. I recommend everyone read everything else he’s ever written. Well done!
And Bari, thank you for asking Tim these questions. I love what you’re building.
Had watched every space flight, from Project Mercury through Apollo. Lived on the West Coast and hated getting up early, but for the future of space, gladly set my alarm and woke up, eager to see the take off and all that followed.
Musk, is using private money and fees for putting up satellites, to take humanity to the stars, why would anyone say no to him?
Did you read his post about Japan about a decade ago? Until I read it, I never knew I wanted to visit Japan… and then I did. It was a homage to Wait But Why.
What strikes me is not how much money is being spent, but how it is spent and the results. SpaceX has spent about $10 billion to develop and deliver products and services compared to NASA, which has spent about $465 billion. To be fair, NASA spends on projects other than a low-cost Earth-to-Orbit option and SpaceX certainly benefits from NASA's experience, but I think the immense difference in ROI speaks volumes. And that's not even mentioning that while NASA took in about $1 to $2 billion from non-federal sources during the past 25 years, SpaceX takes in $5 to $7 billion every year...
It is great that you to recognize history as it is happening - and to make your daughter a part of it. One hundred years from now on the anniversary of this flight - when you daughter is in her early middle age - she will be able to tell everyone around her at the celebration on Europa "I was there at the beginning."
Even if she doesn't remember it directly, your daughter will appreciate the family photos that you probably took. Shared experiences are more meaningful.
'Space, the final frontier..these are the voyages of the Starship and its multi-year mission to explore strange new worlds...' - "Science fiction without the fiction part", indeed!
Yes, but thank goodness gubmint got bored with space and the Space Shuttle blew up on a faulty O-ring, demostrated in the halls of Congress by Richard Feynman. That's what created the opportunity for Elon Musk to reinvent the whole space thingy.
And for those not paying attention we have Musk's Dragon spacecraft rescuing the crew of Woeing's Starliner. Got it, kid?
I can admire the success of SpaceX, but can someone explain why we need to colonize Mars, and who would actually go there? Staying on Earth seems much more appealing. And ultimately if there is an 'escape' route available then people might become even more cavalier with things like nuclear weapons.
Tim: My father worked for Convair, an aeronautical company in San Diego, that had build post-WWII military and civilian aircraft. In the early 1950s the U.S. Government contracted with Convair to create a booster rocket that would initially be used as first-generation ICBMs, (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) and later as booster rockets for the Mercury space missions and some later Gemini missions. These missiles were called "Atlas". My father spent a lot of time at Cape Canaveral, FL, during flight testing of these early rocket systems, and later as Project Mercury mission flights were launched. The Project Mercury missions carried a total of seven separate American astronauts into earth orbit for the first time. I was 12 years old when the first Mercury mission was launched. I remember sitting in our TV den in San Diego, sometimes alone, other times with my father home from earlier testing in Florida. We cried tears and yelled "Go, baby! Go!" sitting on the couch or me jumping up and down in front of the TV. A rocket launch is all that you describe so well in your piece. Thank you for "lifting" this current moment of human achievement up for all to enjoy.
Amazingly, my Dad (mentioned in my comment) also worked for Convair in San Diego. He had just finished with the USAF where he was an airframe engineer working on the X-20 project (cruise missiles and space shuttles) at Holloman. We arrived in '69 during the bicentennial. In fact my pinewood derby car was tested in Convair's wind tunnels. It also had nearly frictionless axles, like hotwheels. It was very fast. We lived on Point Loma and Mission Hills. I graduated from Roosevelt Jr High, and Uni High School. Thanks for prompting the blast from the past.
Time to make the comments section mad, I think.
To begin--I very much identify with Tim's enthusiasm for space travel and making mankind an interplanetary species. I am an engineer in the space industry, and I can honestly say I would have been less likely to become one without Elon's kick, of our industry, in the butt.
Particularly, I'm in awe of what SpaceX has accomplished--I was actually at Cape Canaveral itself when they successfully landed the first orbital first-stage booster, on December 21, 2015. They are the greatest rocket company in history at this point, and we should all look forward to the amazing things they do in the years ahead. This is just the beginning.
It was awesome for Tim to bring his young daughter to see this moment. I am a relatively new father myself, and I want my son to see something like this one day. Perhaps he will follow in my footsteps, and also contribute to making mankind an interplanetary species.
Now that I've gotten that disclaimer out of the way--
--This is why I am gravely concerned about what Elon Musk has become, outside of SpaceX and Tesla.
I am afraid what Elon's doing in other spheres could end up invalidating all the good he's done, and then some, at SpaceX and Tesla.
I've been following Tim Urban's writing for a long time, and I'm not quite sure he realizes the dangerous path Elon, his idol, is on--not just for himself but for all of us.
A constant concern of Tim's writing is, indeed, "the pessimism and petty cynicism that pervade our age of suffocating tribalism." Take a look at most of his blog posts the last five years and his book; they try harder than I've seen anyone try to construct a Unified Theory, if you will, of our dysfunctional politics. I don't agree with all of it, but I'm at least in awe of the effort.
Problem is, I find it difficult to characterize Elon's behavior and obsessions, particularly during the last several months, as anything other than the embodiment of that "suffocating tribalism" Tim abhors. And that's putting it kindly.
And forgive me, but it's getting harder and harder to compartmentalize that behavior of Elon's from his companies, his "vision", or his goals. Not only are they increasingly going to get intertwined, they're going to be on a collision course with each other.
I get that this is a Free Press article, and as such, it is going to be largely read by people who either agree with Elon's current politics or find them irrelevant. Or, by those like Tim, who have decided to keep their head down and laser-focus on the good things in life and humanity, rather than the bad things and the bad feelings they engender.
That's all well and good. Good feelings are good, and tribalism, in general, stinks. I hate it when people resort to positions, arguments, and thoughts whose only source of validity is the tribe, the leader, or the dictator. Or even the academic. At least in principle, we can align on that.
But Tim and I are alike in that we want a bright, unlimited, Solar-System-wide future for the human race. And I would challenge Tim--and everyone here--to consider the notion that it is going to be difficult for that to occur when a moiety of America comes to associate Elon and his vision with "retribution", across the United States.
It is going to be hard to characterize SpaceX as fostering "a major milestone in not just human history but life history", when its owner and driving force is allying himself with a figure openly calling much of America "the enemy within".
It is going to be near-impossible, in fact, to foster any enthusiasm for space exploration, space travel, or space settlement when opposition to Elon's heroes in government gets characterized as "disloyalty", "scum", "vermin", "treason", or worse.
Imagine the worst thing you've ever seen happen to someone for posting an off-color thing on Twitter and multiply it by a thousand. That's the vision--the dream, if you will--that Elon is aligning himself behind.
Tim would likely argue that he agrees with me--just that he thinks I'm wrong about Elon in particular. He would argue that Elon is defending the good and free things, both inside and outside Tesla and SpaceX, and that the people I'm referring to aren't nearly so bad as I'm painting them as. Even if he didn't think Elon was doing any of that, he would likely argue his achievements grant him a mulligan and indispensability anyway.
He has not seen the Elon I have.
The Elon I've seen of late has been an Elon spreading manifest lies that he has to know are untrue, about basically anyone in his way. He's been an Elon nodding and applauding to a politician threatening to use government to "straighten out the media", while calling himself a free speech absolutist. He's been an Elon trying to use self-declared dictators for his own goals, unaware that generally, you don't use dictators, or anyone promising to be one. They use you.
And for gosh's sake, *that matters*, even for wonderful achievements like this.
They threaten to negate every positive benefit those achievements confer on our country, and our species.
If Tim, or anyone like him, is frustrated reading this, and wants to say, "So what? This article isn't about Elon! It's about furthering humanity and reaching the stars, and sharing that with your *children*! Why do you have to make this about politics, like a tribalist? This is why I stopped listening to people like you!", etc.
*I get it*. I wish Elon and his dark turn could stay completely separated from wonderful testimonials like this one. Believe me, I have plenty of my own I could share, and did.
I wish SpaceX could just get us to Mars, and we could just focus on that, and remain blissfully unaffected by the negativity, nay, the *tribalism*, of today on Earth. I wish that Elon the "dark MAGA", and Elon the great visionary, were two separate people, just sharing the same body, name, and legal status.
I wish we could make an ideal society on Mars and not give a damn about Earth and all its godforsaken politics. And I wish Elon weren't sabotaging his own goals with his apparent descent into vengeful, grudgeful, obsession and retribution.
Heck, I wish many of the commenters here were right in their apparent conviction that Elon is the *real* fighter for freedom, and that his opponents were the "dictators" he maniacally, obsessively, claims they are. That would make all this mess make sense.
But they're not, he's not, and it doesn't. Sorry.
My point--Just as we can't but share our love and wonder at the advancements humanity is making with our kids, we also cannot keep them, or the space industry, or the quest to make humanity multiplanetary, sheltered from the fallout here. SpaceX, and its vision, will rise and fall inversely with Elon's current politics on Earth.
If Elon is to succeed in landing on Mars, he will do so in spite of, not because of, his turn of late. He should, for once, for his own sake, pray he fails at something for once. Specifically, in three weeks time.
If he does, we will all be able to take our kids to see the first SpaceX mission to Mars. And only if. Calling it.
Sorry for raining on the magical, high-minded parade here. Tim, continue to write wonderful things about space. Free Press commenters, let me have it, with both barrels. This is a free speech publication after all. And none of it will make what I wrote here any less right. :)
This 👆🏽
20 years ago my son and his friend started a rocket club in high school. They had heard of SpaceX and asked to get a tour. I chaperoned the trip. It was early days for the company. It was in a small warehouse south of LAX. I remember thinking Elon was just a bored billionaire with a hobby. Boy was I wrong. Keep on dreaming and innovating Elon. Our country needs it!
Lovely, thank you!
This was great!
I’ve been Tim Urban fan for so long that I actually feel I know him like a relative. I have not yet read this article but want to say I am thrilled he’s publishing on The Free Press. What a great fit!
I’ve been a Tim fan for a long time…this is one of the best pieces he’s ever written. I recommend everyone read everything else he’s ever written. Well done!
And Bari, thank you for asking Tim these questions. I love what you’re building.
Beautiful article.
Had watched every space flight, from Project Mercury through Apollo. Lived on the West Coast and hated getting up early, but for the future of space, gladly set my alarm and woke up, eager to see the take off and all that followed.
Musk, is using private money and fees for putting up satellites, to take humanity to the stars, why would anyone say no to him?
Tim, welcome to the Free Press. I have been enjoying Wait But Why for years!
Same here!
Did you read his post about Japan about a decade ago? Until I read it, I never knew I wanted to visit Japan… and then I did. It was a homage to Wait But Why.
What strikes me is not how much money is being spent, but how it is spent and the results. SpaceX has spent about $10 billion to develop and deliver products and services compared to NASA, which has spent about $465 billion. To be fair, NASA spends on projects other than a low-cost Earth-to-Orbit option and SpaceX certainly benefits from NASA's experience, but I think the immense difference in ROI speaks volumes. And that's not even mentioning that while NASA took in about $1 to $2 billion from non-federal sources during the past 25 years, SpaceX takes in $5 to $7 billion every year...
It is great that you to recognize history as it is happening - and to make your daughter a part of it. One hundred years from now on the anniversary of this flight - when you daughter is in her early middle age - she will be able to tell everyone around her at the celebration on Europa "I was there at the beginning."
Even if she doesn't remember it directly, your daughter will appreciate the family photos that you probably took. Shared experiences are more meaningful.
'Any interest in writing a short piece about that jaw-dropping launch?'
This was short?
'Space, the final frontier..these are the voyages of the Starship and its multi-year mission to explore strange new worlds...' - "Science fiction without the fiction part", indeed!
Yes, but thank goodness gubmint got bored with space and the Space Shuttle blew up on a faulty O-ring, demostrated in the halls of Congress by Richard Feynman. That's what created the opportunity for Elon Musk to reinvent the whole space thingy.
And for those not paying attention we have Musk's Dragon spacecraft rescuing the crew of Woeing's Starliner. Got it, kid?
I can admire the success of SpaceX, but can someone explain why we need to colonize Mars, and who would actually go there? Staying on Earth seems much more appealing. And ultimately if there is an 'escape' route available then people might become even more cavalier with things like nuclear weapons.
Tim: My father worked for Convair, an aeronautical company in San Diego, that had build post-WWII military and civilian aircraft. In the early 1950s the U.S. Government contracted with Convair to create a booster rocket that would initially be used as first-generation ICBMs, (Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles) and later as booster rockets for the Mercury space missions and some later Gemini missions. These missiles were called "Atlas". My father spent a lot of time at Cape Canaveral, FL, during flight testing of these early rocket systems, and later as Project Mercury mission flights were launched. The Project Mercury missions carried a total of seven separate American astronauts into earth orbit for the first time. I was 12 years old when the first Mercury mission was launched. I remember sitting in our TV den in San Diego, sometimes alone, other times with my father home from earlier testing in Florida. We cried tears and yelled "Go, baby! Go!" sitting on the couch or me jumping up and down in front of the TV. A rocket launch is all that you describe so well in your piece. Thank you for "lifting" this current moment of human achievement up for all to enjoy.
Amazingly, my Dad (mentioned in my comment) also worked for Convair in San Diego. He had just finished with the USAF where he was an airframe engineer working on the X-20 project (cruise missiles and space shuttles) at Holloman. We arrived in '69 during the bicentennial. In fact my pinewood derby car was tested in Convair's wind tunnels. It also had nearly frictionless axles, like hotwheels. It was very fast. We lived on Point Loma and Mission Hills. I graduated from Roosevelt Jr High, and Uni High School. Thanks for prompting the blast from the past.