It's Not Rocket Science Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/its-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? All rights reserved 53bb7189-c4e5-561b-b850-4c32f1fbaf9f yes en Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:13:53 -0600 Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:14:16 -0600 http://www.itsnotrocketscience.space https://img.transistorcdn.com/ozIYGGXMVvx-5h08xw941-2_iMjeLRSu5pj3HHkuvrw/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yY2Y5/Zjc3ZTNlMmI1YTAw/YjBjNWM5MjkwZjNk/MGFkMy5qcGc.jpg It's Not Rocket Science http://www.itsnotrocketscience.space episodic 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? A podcast exploring the life arcs of smart, creative, driven people who helped Elon Musk and SpaceX revolutionize the space industry. spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk It's Not Rocket Science Podcast No No Tom Mueller - Employee Number One 10 10 Tom Mueller - Employee Number One full 3e1a4c49-b5e6-431e-8aaa-2b3129c455fc https://www.itsnotrocketscience.space/ 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 Impulse Space to create in-orbit mobility for the space economy.
 

  • (00:00) - IPO Hot Take
  • (00:59) - Becoming Employee One
  • (03:42) - Betting on SpaceX when others failed
  • (06:06) - The math teacher who changed everything
  • (15:01) - Building Starship: simplification, methane & the last test flight
  • (19:47) - Quintessential Elon moment: schedules
  • (24:36) - Leaving SpaceX and starting Impulse Space
  • (27:31) - Dragon & flying humans
  • (29:37) - Building Impulse & the "true space age"
  • (35:05) - Outside the rocket: the raise, racing & the magic lesson
  • (40:34) - Making the world a better place: the space economy & philanthropy
]]> 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 Impulse Space to create in-orbit mobility for the space economy.
 

  • (00:00) - IPO Hot Take
  • (00:59) - Becoming Employee One
  • (03:42) - Betting on SpaceX when others failed
  • (06:06) - The math teacher who changed everything
  • (15:01) - Building Starship: simplification, methane & the last test flight
  • (19:47) - Quintessential Elon moment: schedules
  • (24:36) - Leaving SpaceX and starting Impulse Space
  • (27:31) - Dragon & flying humans
  • (29:37) - Building Impulse & the "true space age"
  • (35:05) - Outside the rocket: the raise, racing & the magic lesson
  • (40:34) - Making the world a better place: the space economy & philanthropy
]]> Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:28:46 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 2727 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 Impulse Space to create in-orbit mobility for the space economy.
 

  • (00:00) - IPO Hot Take
  • (00:59) - Becoming Employee One
  • (03:42) - Betting on SpaceX when others failed
  • (06:06) - The math teacher who changed everything
  • (15:01) - Building Starship: simplification, methane & the last test flight
  • (19:47) - Quintessential Elon moment: schedules
  • (24:36) - Leaving SpaceX and starting Impulse Space
  • (27:31) - Dragon & flying humans
  • (29:37) - Building Impulse & the "true space age"
  • (35:05) - Outside the rocket: the raise, racing & the magic lesson
  • (40:34) - Making the world a better place: the space economy & philanthropy
]]> spacex, space, technology, elon musk, falcon, rockets, IPO, impulse space, starship, tom mueller No Bulent Altan - The Right Type of Challenging 9 9 Bulent Altan - The Right Type of Challenging full 73b5ef05-77a2-490a-9345-690fb40e2763 https://www.jeffwardwrites.com/podcast-bulent-altan 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 "gets to do engineering every day." Listen in as we discuss everything from surviving the hot seat on Elon's jet to advice for angel investors.

]]> 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 "gets to do engineering every day." Listen in as we discuss everything from surviving the hot seat on Elon's jet to advice for angel investors.

]]> Tue, 02 Jun 2026 07:50:30 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 2270 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 "gets to do engineering every day." Listen in as we discuss everything from surviving the hot seat on Elon's jet to advice for angel investors.

]]> spacex, alpine, angel investing, space, technology, elon musk, venture capital, falcon, rockets No Krishna Pribadi - From Merlin to VO2 Max 8 8 Krishna Pribadi - From Merlin to VO2 Max full 59ec70f3-b56b-49e8-b8c1-2435ddae5c2f https://www.itsnotrocketscience.space 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 practice called Tanaga Labs.

We talk about all of it.

]]> 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 practice called Tanaga Labs.

We talk about all of it.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 10:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1940 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 practice called Tanaga Labs.

We talk about all of it.

]]> SpaceX, ex-SpaceX, Krishna Pribadi, Jeff Ward, Falcon 9, Merlin 1D, OctaWeb, Elon Musk, first principles, extreme ownership, VO2 max, longevity, human performance, career pivot, motorcycle racing, Moto America, Tanaga Labs, aerospace podcast No Hans Koenigsmann - From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line 7 7 Hans Koenigsmann - From Falcon 1 to the Kármán Line full d96028f3-99ec-43fa-a609-0a375edb3779 https://share.transistor.fm/s/cabbc852 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 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 Benthaus, the first paraplegic astronaut.

Jeff and Hans first crossed paths in the small-satellite world of the 1990s — Hans in Bremen, Jeff at Surrey — before reconnecting when Jeff joined SpaceX as Hans was handing off avionics to focus on systems.

In this conversation, Hans recounts the post-Falcon-1-Flight-3 meeting where Musk told a near-broke team they had six weeks to launch the fourth and final rocket. He explains why GNC at SpaceX owned its own hardware instead of writing specs and tossing them over the fence. He talks about pulling Gwen Shotwell into the company, scuba diving with Musk at Kwajalein, and the peer-review line that became his personal benchmark: resilient and unfazed by ambiguity or changes in strategic direction.

And he describes what it's like to trust someone else's rocket — and what the ride felt like. A glance into something that's way bigger than you thought.

]]> 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 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 Benthaus, the first paraplegic astronaut.

Jeff and Hans first crossed paths in the small-satellite world of the 1990s — Hans in Bremen, Jeff at Surrey — before reconnecting when Jeff joined SpaceX as Hans was handing off avionics to focus on systems.

In this conversation, Hans recounts the post-Falcon-1-Flight-3 meeting where Musk told a near-broke team they had six weeks to launch the fourth and final rocket. He explains why GNC at SpaceX owned its own hardware instead of writing specs and tossing them over the fence. He talks about pulling Gwen Shotwell into the company, scuba diving with Musk at Kwajalein, and the peer-review line that became his personal benchmark: resilient and unfazed by ambiguity or changes in strategic direction.

And he describes what it's like to trust someone else's rocket — and what the ride felt like. A glance into something that's way bigger than you thought.

]]> Tue, 05 May 2026 05:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 2544 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 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 Benthaus, the first paraplegic astronaut.

Jeff and Hans first crossed paths in the small-satellite world of the 1990s — Hans in Bremen, Jeff at Surrey — before reconnecting when Jeff joined SpaceX as Hans was handing off avionics to focus on systems.

In this conversation, Hans recounts the post-Falcon-1-Flight-3 meeting where Musk told a near-broke team they had six weeks to launch the fourth and final rocket. He explains why GNC at SpaceX owned its own hardware instead of writing specs and tossing them over the fence. He talks about pulling Gwen Shotwell into the company, scuba diving with Musk at Kwajalein, and the peer-review line that became his personal benchmark: resilient and unfazed by ambiguity or changes in strategic direction.

And he describes what it's like to trust someone else's rocket — and what the ride felt like. A glance into something that's way bigger than you thought.

]]> Hans Koenigsmann, Falcon 1, New Shepard, Blue Origin, Kármán line, Michi Benthaus, avionics, Gwen Shotwell, SpaceX No Paul Mahacek - Climate is Hot Right Now 6 6 Paul Mahacek - Climate is Hot Right Now full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/1843373841 https://share.transistor.fm/s/1008fc6a 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.

]]> 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.

]]> Sat, 08 Jun 2024 18:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1753 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.

]]> spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No Joel Brinton - That West Wing Moment 5 5 Joel Brinton - That West Wing Moment full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/1773858264 https://share.transistor.fm/s/d4f05a1c 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.

]]> 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.

]]> Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1664 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. 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 spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure 4 4 Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/1667101653 https://share.transistor.fm/s/5bf39e0b Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward

]]> Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward

]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2023 17:00:00 -0700 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1537 Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward Edwin Chiu - Expect Failure by Jeff Ward spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No Dolly Singh - Unicorn Herding 3 3 Dolly Singh - Unicorn Herding full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/1494226606 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4891d562 An interview with expert Unicorn Herder Dolly Singh about SpaceX, life after SpaceX, feminism, and the unifying power of technology. And plumbers are millionaires.

]]> An interview with expert Unicorn Herder Dolly Singh about SpaceX, life after SpaceX, feminism, and the unifying power of technology. And plumbers are millionaires.

]]> Fri, 14 Apr 2023 18:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 2186 An interview with expert Unicorn Herder Dolly Singh about SpaceX, life after SpaceX, feminism, and the unifying power of technology. And plumbers are millionaires. An interview with expert Unicorn Herder Dolly Singh about SpaceX, life after SpaceX, feminism, and the unifying power of technology. And plumbers are millionaires. spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No Endless Playtime - Erin Gatling and Casey Schilling 2 2 Endless Playtime - Erin Gatling and Casey Schilling full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/916712096 https://share.transistor.fm/s/b59b5054 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.

]]> 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.

]]> Tue, 20 Oct 2020 18:00:00 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1509 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. 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. spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No The Impossible Drive and Work Life Balance - Peter Dohm 1 1 The Impossible Drive and Work Life Balance - Peter Dohm full tag:soundcloud,2010:tracks/870360520 https://share.transistor.fm/s/a45d1477 An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center.

]]> An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center.

]]> Tue, 04 Aug 2020 19:06:13 -0600 Jeff Ward Jeff Ward 1305 An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center. An interview with entrepreneur Peter Dohm about his trajectory from college, to SpaceX and onward to Prime Lightworks and the LA Curling Center. spacex,space,technology,rockets,satellites,elon musk No