It's Not Rocket Science artwork

Technology · Jeff Ward

It's Not Rocket Science

by Jeff Ward

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?

Latest episodes

Showing 17 · updated from the feed

Laura Crabtree - This Spacesuit's Supposed to Make You Look Cooler

An 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 i

Oct 20
42 min

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 distan

Oct 1
44 min

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 m

Sep 1
48 min

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 facto

Aug 11
37 min

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

Jul 28
40 min

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

Jul 14
30 min

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. Ever

Jul 1
44 min

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 sch

Jun 16
45 min

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

Jun 2
37 min

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. H

May 19
32 min

Hans Koenigsmann - From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line

Hans 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

May 5
42 min

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

Jun 9 2024
29 min

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

Mar 13 2024
27 min

Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure

Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward

Nov 15 2023
25 min

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.

Apr 15 2023
36 min

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.

Oct 21 2020
25 min

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.

Aug 5 2020
21 min

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