Good morning to all new and old readers! Here is your Saturday edition of Faster Than Normal, exploring the stories, ideas, and frameworks of the world’s most prolific people and companies—and how you can apply them to build businesses, wealth, and the most important asset of all: yourself. 

Today, we’re covering SpaceX and their journey to dominating space.

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Alex

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SpaceX started in a conference room at a hotel near LAX. It was 2001. Elon Musk had just cashed out of PayPal and was looking for his next big thing. Space, he thought. Why not?

The early days were tough. Musk sank $100 million of his own money into the company. People thought he was crazy. Space was for governments, not startups. The first three launches failed. Money was running out.

"I was so naive," Musk later said. "I thought, 'How hard can rocket science be?'"

Pretty hard, it turns out. But Musk persevered. The fourth launch succeeded. SpaceX had proven it could reach orbit. NASA took notice and awarded the company a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the International Space Station.

That was the turning point. SpaceX went from scrappy startup to serious player. They developed the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. In 2012, they became the first private company to dock with the ISS.

But success brought new challenges. Competitors emerged. Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, was nipping at their heels. SpaceX needed to innovate - fast.

Their answer? Reusability. SpaceX bet big on landing and reusing rocket boosters. It was a huge gamble. Many said it couldn't be done.

"If we can recover and reuse the rocket booster, it's like recovering and reusing an aircraft," Musk explained. "It's fundamental to making space travel affordable."

After multiple explosive failures, they nailed it. In December 2015, a Falcon 9 first stage landed safely at Cape Canaveral. The crowd went wild. SpaceX had changed the game.

Reusability slashed launch costs. SpaceX could now undercut competitors by 50% or more. Business boomed. They launched satellites, cargo, and eventually humans to the ISS.

But Musk wasn't satisfied. He had bigger dreams. Mars.

Enter Starship. A fully reusable rocket designed to carry 100 people to Mars. When unveiled in 2019, many scoffed. Too ambitious, they said. Impossible.

Musk disagreed. "You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great," he said. "It's about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past."

Starship development has been rocky. Early prototypes exploded spectacularly. But progress is steady. In April 2023, Starship completed its first integrated flight test.

Today, SpaceX dominates the launch market. They've completed over 200 successful launches. Their Starlink satellite internet service has over 1.5 million subscribers. The company is valued at $180 billion.

Not bad for a startup that began in a hotel conference room.

SpaceX's story is one of audacious goals, relentless iteration, and a willingness to fail. They've transformed space from a government monopoly to a competitive industry. And they're just getting started.

"When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor," Musk once said. It's a philosophy that will one day take SpaceX to Mars.

Lesson 1: Make failure spectacular. Most companies hide their failures. SpaceX livestreams them. Remember those early Falcon 9 explosions? SpaceX turned them into events. People tuned in to watch. It was exciting. Musk tweeted after one failure, "Rocket is fine? It's just a rapid unscheduled disassembly." This approach does two things. It builds public interest. And it normalizes failure as part of the process. It's genius branding disguised as transparency.

Lesson 2: Vertical integration is your friend. Most companies outsource. Not SpaceX. They make almost everything in-house. Engines, software, even the spacesuits. Why? Control and speed. Musk says, "The best part is no part. The best process is no process." By keeping it all under one roof, they iterate faster. They're not waiting on suppliers or dealing with conflicting priorities. It's all SpaceX, all the time. This approach isn't cheap or easy. But it gives them an edge. They can move at warp speed while competitors are still waiting for parts.

Lesson 3: Don't be afraid to set impossible deadlines. Elon is famous for setting unrealistic timelines. But there's method to this madness. He explains, "I think it's better to set a stretched target and fall short than to set a lower target and achieve it." These ambitious goals push the team to work harder and think bigger. They might miss the deadline, but they achieve more than they would have otherwise.

Lesson 4: Think in first principles. Elon doesn't accept conventional wisdom. He breaks problems down to their fundamental truths. Then he builds up from there. He explains, "I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy." This approach led to reusable rockets. Everyone said it couldn't be done. Elon asked why not. Then he did it.

Lesson 5: Create a mission people can believe in. SpaceX isn't just about making money. It's about making humans multi-planetary. This big vision attracts top talent. People work crazy hours because they believe in the mission. Elon says, "You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great." A compelling mission makes this possible.

That’s all for today, folks. As always, please give me your feedback. Which section is your favourite? What do you want to see more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.

Have a wonderful rest of week, all.

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