YouSaid · the spoken record

Tim Dodd

lines on the record: 382
first: 2023-02-02
most recent: 2023-02-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“How could I not? You know, I've seen and felt four of these prototype vehicles blow up with my own eyes. I don't know if there's anyone else, early days, some of the, you know, Mercury and Gemini astronauts watched failures of rockets and then got on them.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Me, that's one of those things a lot of people ask why they aren't doing it, of course, NASA and other individuals have their reasons of why not. You know, there's obviously some technical hurdles, but now with Starlink and other capabilities, there's less hurdles. There's obviously some transparency reasons why, you know, on safety reasons, why it might not be a great idea to live stream a risky rocket launch, you know, the challenger, I think, put a pretty bad taste in our mouth as far as publicizing an event and having every student in the United States tune in to tragedy. But that's something I'm pushing for really hard just because I think it could be magical. I think it could really connect with people in a way that hasn't been done before.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, like pre rig things Starship is going to be a transportation system and it has being built from the ground up. There's no reason why they can't put infrastructure in for cameras that are just housed in the vehicle. These are talks that I'm excited to have because I really ideally one of the things I'd love to do. I'm going to be pushing really hard to actually try live streaming from inside during the launch.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like its internal volume is the pressurized volume on Starship is bigger than a 747's pressurized volume. And it can take 100 metric tons anywhere with enough refueling. So we have, in theory, very little mass and volume constraints. Unlike prior, all other spaceflight missions ever, you're counting grams down to just really can't risk. You have very defined parameters on what you kind of cannot do. We're going to likely have the luxury of being able to film and capture this in a way that's just never been done before. We won't be inhibited by mass and volume constraints like prior. So all that said and done, I'm hoping that we'll be able to just arm ourselves to the teeth with the absolute best cameras and equipment possible, backups on backups. And, you know, and pre-”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If spaceflight halted today, you know, space assets, all of our on-orbit assets, our life would be crippled. And I don't think people realize that. So we're already reliant on it, but now we're getting to the point where we're really turning that corner where it's the average person alive today. If you're born, you know, now from now on, I think there's a real decent chance that by the time you pass, there's an opportunity to have flown in space.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Interesting, yeah. I mean, this is, and to me, this represents this and the other commercial space, you know, private spaceflight missions like this represent really a turning point, like truly an inflection. And again, it's easy for people to be cynical that, oh, you know, why are people wasting all this money doing spaceflight stuff? It's like, well, I'm sure some people were saying that same thing about, you know, airplanes and early aviation going like, why are we can't believe those people are wasting the government's, you know, funding these stupid planes and stuff. How's this ever going to benefit me? And nowadays, like imagine if all the planes just stopped working. Like we'd freak out our economy would collapse. It would suck, you know, and it might be a long time before we get to that reality.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so far, I think we can really lean on what has happened with the other commercial crew missions and private missions like the Inspiration Form mission or Axiom, where SpaceX flew individually. They trained for about six months. A lot of like reading manuals and learning the spacecraft.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's already not only been to space, like, you know, he's been to the International Space Station, he's been on orbit and on the ISS. And so what's cool is like, you know, there's talks of. Frankly, to be honest, I still don't know all of the details about this. We're not yet into training. I kind of always assumed prior that there'd be some professional astronaut, you know, when they talked about it in 2018, there's talks of we'll have a professional astronaut on board. But realistically, now, like MZ is a trained astronaut, you know. He has trained a long, like six months plus to be able to fly on Soyuz. So as far as like it's good to know for me that I have someone The crew that has experience with spaceflight has trained and has some knowledge on spaceflight as well. That is an important aspect for sure”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You soccumaya. So he's also a musician. So he was actually in some kind of punk hardcore Japanese bands in the early, in the 90s and stuff and early 2000s. He started a record company and distribution and sales ended up in fashion and owns one of the biggest fashion companies in Japan and has become a fine art collector and just kind of a philanthropist.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Or 20, and he's, I mean, he's been acting since he was like five years old or something. He's abollywood star. He is a star in India, which is really cool. Caitlin Farrington from the United States is an Olympic gold medalist snowboarder. So she, believe it or not, is the athlete and not me. And she's one of the backup crew members, as so is Miyu from Japan, who's a dancer.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Steve is Japanese, his parents are Japanese, but he born, raised in the United States. Yemi is a dancer and choreographer from the Czech Republic. Rhiannon is a fine art photographer from England and Ireland. I guess she lives in both and kind of a bit of a, she's all over the place. Technically, she's Irish, I guess. Tim Dodd, yep, that's me from the United States. Then you have Karim, who is from England and does also as a photographer and documentarian, does a lot of work with oceanography and volcanoes. So he does really incredible work. Brendan Hall is a documentarian and filmmaker. Dev Joshi, sorry, Brendan is also from the United States. Dev Joshi is an Indian actor. I believe also already been producing and things. He's very young. I think he's only like 19.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, oh man, we might just want to pull up just so I don't totally butcher and forget anybody, but because so far I haven't actually had the chance to meet everyone in person. So far a lot of this was done during the pandemic, but we've met through a couple different things. We've had a couple different times to get together. But so far, I have not met Steve Aoki yet or top. We've been on calls and stuff. I also have not yet met Dev Joshi, who is an actor from India. So yeah, Steve Aoki, American DJ and producer and musician, Top from South Korea is also a musician and a producer.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But it's insane to me that, like, we're having this conversation that that is my reality, you know, like, and that someone was generous enough to consider the option of sharing this with, frankly, strangers. And the process that they had for selecting how much thought and time went into the selection process is incredible. They did a public call at the beginning of 2021. And so the teams involved in whittling it down from a million applicants. There's a million applicants. And they got it down to eight crew members and two backups. Amazing people. I would have, you know, I don't know how they wound up where they did, but it's incredible. I feel very deep connection to everyone that's already involved.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Say going to the moon since I'm not landing on it. But flying around the moon, seeing the far side of the moon with my own eyes.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I've said hilariously, I've probably said dozens or hundreds of times on air, like, yeah, I don't ever want to go to space because it's not like it's not a driving force. It's not really a thing I even really, truly pictured or let myself fantasize about, frankly. So each step of the selection process, I didn't really let myself dream about it too much or, you know, but it would kind of chip away like, oh my God, this is actually becoming more real. This is actually more and more of an opportunity. And I get equally more nervous too. Like, you know, frankly, I've seen spaceflight stuff go wrong. I think about this stuff a lot. So like, yeah, I get more nervous, but I also get more excited about that opportunity. Like, it's an opportunity that how can you pass? And it's still, I still have to actually stop, pause, think, and actually realize the reality that I am going to the moon. I'm going to see the moon up close, flying around the moon. I'm sorry. Some people get mad when I...”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More real it becomes. You know, the announcement was a big, it just got announced at the end of 2022 publicly. Who's involved? And so, you know, prior to that, like I had, you know, each step of the selection process, you know, there's a pretty comprehensive selection process with interviews and stuff. Each step, I'd try not to get my hopes up. And frankly, like this, let me be clear, this was not something that I've always wanted to do. You know, it's not like I'm out there. I didn't start doing YouTube videos because I wanted to even go to.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a gradient. It's slowly doing a few things. Since I've known it's become, I think the closer it gets, the more excited and the more nervous I get. Know it's”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm someone that has studied a lot about the Apollo program, the people that have been to the moon and they're incredible individuals, incredible individuals, but they're so saturated with tasks and they're military trained and often that they didn't really have the luxury of just being able to soak in the experience of going around or to the moon and seeing the moon up close with your own eyes. just psychologically has to be insane. And so to have this opportunity to be able to observe our closest celestial neighbor with your own eyes and your sole purpose is to soak it in and share it and communicate and create with the rest of our planet, like that to me is just beautiful.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and it's easy these days for people to be cynical, you know, especially about spaceflight and wealthy individuals, but really, in my opinion, and maybe, you know, just the time, I was just so couldn't believe this idea.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I know a guy. This guy rode rag by once, but so, and at the time, you know, I was like, this is crazy. I can't believe this is going to happen. And, you know, he had this vision of we're going to find people from all around the world. I'm going to invite people from all around the world, from different walks of life, different trades. And I'm going to share this experience so that they can share it with the world and really have an impact much greater than, you know, any one country or any one individual or any, you know, set of military trained, you know, astronauts could do, offer up a new perspective. Beautiful. I literally, I mean, at the press conference, I cried. Like I had a couple tears in my eyes. I was like, this is so cool.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More or less artists. In the original thing, it was like artists, you know, journalists, a painter, an athlete, all, you know, photographer, videographer, all walks of life basically.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I basically yelled at the camera for three minutes about someone's going around the moon, you know, fast forward to 2018. End of 2018 or near the end, they introduced, there was a SpaceX press conference. I'm there as a member of the press. I'm reporting on, we're going to meet this person that's going around the moon and come to find out, boom, they're going to be riding on Starship now. They change from Falcon Heavy and Dragon. SpaceX is no longer going to do that. They're going to upgrade them basically to Starship. So instead of being in like a small tin can they're in this giant luxurious mega rocket around the moon. And it comes out this individual name Yusaku Maizawa, who is a Japanese billionaire, purchased this ride. And instead of inviting his friends and colleagues and whatever, whoever his family members or whatever, he decided that the most impactful thing he could do with this opportunity is invite.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Purchased a ride through us around the moon. We're going to fly someone around the moon, and at the time it was on a crew dragon capsule and a Falcon Heavy. It's like, wow. And that was enough. That little moment right there, that press release. It's the first time I'm like, I'm going to make a YouTube video about this. I stood up, turned on my camera, put on my at the time spacesuit.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But at the time, I'm telling you a story. At the time, we didn't know. So February 27th, 2017, a press release comes out from SpaceX saying someone.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's basically, it's the Willy Wonka of space. A generous individual. Purchased a ride from SpaceX as early, at least as far as I know, the earliest I knew about it was February 27th, 2017.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He already did this with Falcon 1 to Falcon 9. Like, literally, people were like, What are you doing? They basically signed over and were fully ramping up Falcon 9 by the time they finally had their first Falcon 1 success. They had one more flight. They only flew Falcon 1 successfully twice. They flew five times altogether. The fourth one was successful and they flew one more time. Anyone else out there would have been like, let's keep flying the Falcon 1. We have a working rocket. We can start, you know, making money and profiting. And already he was risking it all and saying, nope, we're going from Falcon 1 to Falcon 9 was a huge, huge leap. I think it's at least as big as a leap from Falcon 1 to 9 as it is from Falcon 9 to Starship or around relatively similar leap. So it's just that same thing again. People are going, why are you leaping into this insane program and system and risk when you have such a, you know, you finally have this workhorse?”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I personally think SpaceX would probably fine if they shut the doors on Starship and just flew Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy for the next 10 years, they would still be commercially valid. They could not spend another dollar on research and development. They could fire, I don't want them to, fire everyone involved in anything research and development and just ran operations on Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy and they would still be dominant for 10 years and they would still have a business case and they'd still be fine. They're all in. Like all chips are pretty much as many chips as possible are in.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it's a lot of it is honestly even just the business making sure the money's flowing in a positive trend more or less you know that yes Elon's obviously a money guy but he thinks he's so I think Elon is so risky you know he just loves to throw it all in that he leaves little margin for error you know he's he's been really lucky with rolling his dice you know especially like when he started SpaceX and Tesla that was the ultimate roll of the dice but I think she's a healthy balance to be like, well, here's our, you know operations and now we can continue to do this without risking everything, you know. And Starship's close. Let me be clear. Starship is close to risking everything already. It's just such a big, fast moving, high-risk developmental program that like.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not really, no. She's done like a TED talk. A couple little things here and there, but not really many interviews. And I would just love to hear what on a daily basis, like, what is she doing to keep her head on and keep everything so organized? My understanding is that she is absolutely integral and does just an insane amount of work at SpaceX.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Starship and just go full steam ahead on that. And she runs into the meeting and reminds Elon, we have X amount of customers that have already purchased a ride on Falcon Heavy. We can't delay that. So it's that business sense of like, yes, it's great to innovate, but we also have to pay our dues and make the money to continue our operations. And I think she's just a lot better at such a great perspective on everything. It really seems like everything. She doesn't, I wish she did more interviews because I would love to hear more from her. But man, like it just seems.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Man, my understanding is she's really the glue. She's the glue to the tornado. Tornado comes in and then she comes around and just really executes on and helps a famous story is that at some point Elon walked in or she sprinted into a meeting because Elon was actively trying to cancel Falcon Heavy. Saying it's too far, like it's too much development. It's still too far away. And this is like, you know, this might have been like end of 2017 or something. And it flew for the first time in 2018. So we're talking like it's close to the end of development. You know, there's hardware being built, all this stuff. And Elon's literally in a meeting telling people they're going to cancel it and we're going to move on to BFR.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How dare you say that? Even Gwen Shotwell, the president of SpaceX, is saying Q3 of 2021. I'm like, okay, but I'm not going to be surprised if it slips into 2022. And here we are at the beginning of 2023. And I think we're finally within like two months. I'm expecting, like I'm trying to keep my March and April as free as I can. We'll put it that”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the reason that I say this and why it's so difficult is they did a first full stack test in July of 2021, and the expectation was we're a month or two away from a launch So, realistically, for 18 months, I've been in a purgatory thinking that we're a month or two away of an orbital launch. Now, I did say, for the record, when that thing stacked and when a lot of speculation was saying, you know, a month or two, I was saying, I don't expect it to fly in 2021. And I've been just, I just saw the amount of work that still needed to be done on the ground systems, the tanks, the launch mount, all the stuff I'm sitting there like, there's still a lot of stuff. They're going to have to validate it. They're going to have to test everything, every component. And, you know, people were like,”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There would be explosive energy, but it's not like it. You're lighting all of it simultaneously. It's this giant bomb. It's just really not. So that's good, but at the same time, even in those circumstances, the amount of energy is still absurd enough to likely blow out windows for miles and miles and miles, including my studio space.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, and the biggest thing it's not so much the FA doesn't necessarily care about the success of the rocket. They did really just care about the safety of public and public property, you know? So it's a matter of being convinced and having the data to prove, okay, if this thing blows up, we have a control of how and when it blows up, we have control of X, Y, and Z. Here's the potential damage. Here's the blast radius. This, again, is over twice as powerful and twice as much potential. Actually, it's a lot more potential for an explosive energy where it happened to let me walk back a little bit because in order to have a real detonation, you have to have a perfect mixture ratio of your fuel and oxidizer. When a rocket blows up, typically, you know, it kind of unzips and some of the fuel will mix into some of the oxidizer and you could have some explosive energy, but a lot of it's actually just a deflageration. It's just, you know, flames.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So they're kind of mitigating risks, which is why, like, they're dacking, you know, they don't want to have all the ship could be on top of it to help weigh it down and simulate the launch environment better. At some point, that's a risk they're just going to take when they go for launch. And so for now, they're taking the ship off in case something goes wrong during the 33 engine test. And then once we see if the 33 engine test goes well, hopefully we see the second stage get stacked back on it. We'll see them get closer, like closing out all the items. And the big one too is the FAA launch license. That'll be publicly filed. We'll see that in the system having a launch license. I have no sense of that type of thing. Outside of, but that's a big milestone, and it might be something that could potentially hinder hold up the line.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Normally, the launch clamps are holding onto an entire rocket weighing kilograms. It's weighing an insane amount. So those clamps don't actually have to hold 75 mega Newton of thrust. They really want to have to hold down 25 mega Newtons of thrust. You know what I mean? They're not designed to hold down all 75. So they do have to have enough weight on the rocket. So even when they do the testing of the 33 engines, it'll have to have enough propellant in there that they don't exceed the clamping and the holding force of the stand. Otherwise, it'll... Break free from the launch stand, and that booster will go flying off uncontrolled.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, realistically, we're expecting them to d stack. And SpaceX, I think, just tweeted that actually that they're going to be dacking the second stage from the first stage, kind of get the ship safe while they test because they don't want to, you know, 33 engines is pretty high risk if they do blow up the rocket. When they test it for the first time, it's not going to be fully fueled. I don't think at least. But there is a limit to how they do have to have it weighed down enough that the launch clamps can hold onto it. Because if you think about it,”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Timeline. The reason we have this website, the expected milestones is because I always tell people to ignore any time you ever hear for any of this stuff. Just pay attention to milestones because You're doing stuff for the first time, you know, you just have no idea. So it's”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, holding onto the rocket and lighting up the engines. And so so far they've lit, at most, they kind of, they went for more than 14 engine static fire. I don't recall if it was like, you know, 16 or something engines lit at once and they ended up going down to 14 engines. That's the most engines they've ever lit. So the next step and the final kind of step before they fly this thing is they're actually going to light all 33 engines simultaneously. And although that sounds scary, let's not forget the Falcon Heavy that's now flown five times completely flawlessly has 27 engines running simultaneously. So they definitely have, you know, SpaceX has experience with high number of engines running at the same time, but it is still like, this is going to be... A lot of moving parts and a lot of potential and a lot just a lot of everything.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But if people listen to this, if they're listening to it early on, they'll likely be able to catch. I think at this point it seems like next week.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is that thing ever coming down? It was just falling so slowly and so right there just felt like it was so close. And so when it finally lit its engine and it flipped, I was losing my mind because I'm like, it's working. You know, this crazy plan, this huge, massive thing is doing this absurd feat. And the first one, well, the first four, again, didn't work out as planned, but getting to that point already, getting to that flip maneuver was a huge milestone. And it was so exciting just going through those firsts were amazing. And I think we're coming up now on them doing the full stacks of the booster and the upper stage. I think when we see that fly, when that leaves Earth for the first time, it'll be, like I said, almost twice the amount of thrust as anything else. It'll be the biggest, heaviest, largest thing to ever fly. It's going to shake everything. I can't wait.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And finally, they shut the engines off and were watching it fall. And again, we're tracking it. We know it's falling. And it's falling, falling, falling. It's falling super controlled. And we're like, oh my God, this is perfect. And all of a sudden it clicked and I see it with my, you know, my eyes. I finally tracked and it's straight out straight in front of us. And it looks like it looks like it was a blimp, just barely moving. Now, because it is falling slowly thanks to all of its drag. And again, that's one of those moments. I'm like, It's falling so slow, you know, because it's so big. It's so massive. It's falling sideways. You know, I've seen Falcon 9 boosters and Falcon Heavy boosters, and they scream. They come in so fast. And you can barely even see them. You can just barely track them all of a sudden, they light their engines and they decelerate so quickly. This was like the opposite. It was like.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is looking out down, like way out over, you know, and we can't find it. We're like, where do they lose it? Like we're thinking like, oh my God, this is going to crash down in Brownsville.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it was moving, there's a lot of gaseous oxygen being vented out of the rocket. And it's being blown by this air. So it looks like it's moving actually quite quickly, like away from us, like it's strafing to one side. So I'm watching the monitor. I'm going, oh my God, they're moving it over Brownsville. And we're all, all of us, everyone on this hotel balcony.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't know what in human nature decides this is what to do when you can't believe something, but that's what happens. And when that thing first took off, it was just like my brain couldn't process seeing, you know, because I had spent so much time driving around and seeing it and all of a sudden you're watching it just take off and you're like it's moving and all these, you know, most complicated rocket engines ever made are all firing simultaneously and it didn't blow up on the launch pad and it's slowly increasing and it's just crazy and the sound everything about it. And so by the time the first one is specifically it was December 2020 was the first SN8 it went up and I actually we all lost it in the sky. We couldn't quite see it, but we had telescopes and high telephoto lenses tracking it. And what's funny is there is a pretty strong wind up there at altitude.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Working on it, they're little ants compared to it, then you drive away and you see it on the horizon, and all of a sudden that thing leaves, it starts moving, hovering, hovering essentially. The first time, I mean, you know, for me at least, I put my hand.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Didn't want to exceed a certain speed, so they didn't have to worry about the aerodynamics of it. They just slowly climbed, and it probably also appeased the FAA. They were like, here, we'll just limit the thrust away ratio and just, you know, make it so it's slow and controlled, no big deal. So it's basically more or less slightly above a hover just climbing for minutes for like four or five minutes, you just hear and feel the roar of this thing. Normal rockets, like after the first 30 seconds or minute, you know, they're so far away that it's just diminishing. It's just fading, fading, fading, fading. You still get that rumble, that sense. But those first five flights, the suborbital hops were just, I'll cherish them forever because you just, you're watching this thing that you've driven up next to. You've seen it with your own eyes that's bigger than most buildings in a, you know, fairly dense urban area. It's this massive thing. You stand there, you stood there, you look at it, you're like, wow, that's crazy.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So far, it's been high stakes. It's been insane because the first I kind of mentioned earlier, there's been SN8, 9, 10, 11, and 15 that have all done these suborbital hops. The highest one went 12.5 kilometers and the rest of the four went 10 kilometers in altitude and then turned off the engines and just fell. Now the cool thing about that is the general public could be about five miles away. So again, like eight kilometers away. And the weird thing is this rocket's slowly accelerating.”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thing with arms wide open and sometimes and a giant metal rocket. And it just looks so, so weird. I mean, the word surreal, I think, by definition, I think if you are expecting it, it's not surreal. I think surreal kind of means like unexpected surprise or whatever, you know, even if you're expecting it, even if you've seen pictures, even if everything, it is surreal. You stand there and you just go, what is this?”
2023-02-02 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #356 – Tim Dodd: SpaceX, Starship, Rocket Engines, and Future of Space Travel · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source