Rock­et Man cap­tures Elon Musk’s relent­less ambi­tion to push beyond tra­di­tion­al aero­space lim­i­ta­tions, detail­ing a defin­ing moment in the ear­ly 2000s that set the foun­da­tion for SpaceX. At the time, Musk, along­side his close asso­ciates Adeo Ressi and aero­space con­sul­tant Jim Cantrell, embarked on a mis­sion to Rus­sia to pro­cure a decom­mis­sioned inter­con­ti­nen­tal bal­lis­tic mis­sile (ICBM) for an ambi­tious Mars project. Their goal was to acquire an afford­able rock­et capa­ble of launch­ing a green­house exper­i­ment to the Red Plan­et, which Musk dubbed the “Mars Oasis” project. This ini­tia­tive aimed to inspire pub­lic enthu­si­asm for space trav­el by demon­strat­ing the via­bil­i­ty of grow­ing plants on anoth­er plan­et, but it would also reveal the immense cost bar­ri­ers of space­flight.

Their nego­ti­a­tions in Rus­sia were marked by a series of cul­tur­al clash­es and unex­pect­ed obsta­cles, includ­ing a lav­ish busi­ness lunch where vod­ka flowed as freely as the dis­cus­sions. Musk, unfa­mil­iar with the intense drink­ing cus­toms, report­ed­ly passed out at the table, while the Rus­sians remained unfazed. The meet­ings them­selves were equal­ly disorienting—Musk’s earnest pitch for afford­able space access was met with dis­mis­sive­ness, cul­mi­nat­ing in an insult when one Russ­ian offi­cial spat in their direc­tion. Rather than being dis­cour­aged, Musk took this rejec­tion as an oppor­tu­ni­ty for reflec­tion, rec­og­niz­ing that the exist­ing aero­space indus­try oper­at­ed with inef­fi­cien­cies that drove up costs to unsus­tain­able lev­els. The Russ­ian nego­ti­a­tions end­ed with­out a deal, but they plant­ed the seed for some­thing far more ground­break­ing.

Frus­trat­ed yet ener­gized, Musk turned to first-prin­ci­ples think­ing, a prob­lem-solv­ing approach that breaks down com­plex issues to their fun­da­men­tal truths. He metic­u­lous­ly ana­lyzed the raw mate­ri­als required to build a rocket—aluminum, tita­ni­um, car­bon fiber, and fuel—and cal­cu­lat­ed that the actu­al mate­r­i­al costs amount­ed to only a frac­tion of what tra­di­tion­al rock­et man­u­fac­tur­ers charged. This rev­e­la­tion led him to con­clude that launch­ing rock­ets did not have to be pro­hib­i­tive­ly expen­sive if built effi­cient­ly from the ground up. Musk coined the term “idiot index” to describe the stag­ger­ing markup imposed by lega­cy aero­space com­pa­nies, rein­forc­ing his belief that SpaceX could man­u­fac­ture its own rock­ets at a sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er cost while main­tain­ing reli­a­bil­i­ty.

Back in the Unit­ed States, Musk pre­sent­ed his find­ings to his col­leagues, bold­ly propos­ing that rather than buy­ing a rock­et, they should build one them­selves. The sug­ges­tion was met with skep­ti­cism, as even indus­try vet­er­ans doubt­ed the fea­si­bil­i­ty of a pri­vate­ly fund­ed start­up suc­cess­ful­ly con­struct­ing orbital-class rock­ets. Friends and advi­sors attempt­ed to dis­suade him, cit­ing the immense finan­cial risks and the his­tor­i­cal­ly high fail­ure rate of new aero­space ven­tures. Yet, these warn­ings had the oppo­site effect—rather than back­ing down, Musk dou­bled down, dri­ven by the con­vic­tion that human space­flight could be made sus­tain­able if engi­neered dif­fer­ent­ly. He envi­sioned a future where reusable rock­ets could low­er launch costs, mak­ing Mars col­o­niza­tion a tan­gi­ble real­i­ty rather than a dis­tant dream.

With unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion, Musk estab­lished SpaceX in 2002, secur­ing a ware­house in El Segun­do, Cal­i­for­nia, to begin oper­a­tions. He recruit­ed top engi­neers, includ­ing Tom Mueller, who would become the mas­ter­mind behind SpaceX’s propul­sion sys­tems, and instruct­ed his team to focus on sim­plic­i­ty, cost reduc­tion, and rapid inno­va­tion. Unlike tra­di­tion­al aero­space giants that relied on expen­sive sub­con­trac­tors, SpaceX aimed to devel­op and man­u­fac­ture most of its com­po­nents in-house, allow­ing greater con­trol over costs and pro­duc­tion time­lines. This shift in phi­los­o­phy set the com­pa­ny apart, chal­leng­ing long-estab­lished norms in an indus­try dom­i­nat­ed by gov­ern­ment con­tracts and bureau­crat­ic inef­fi­cien­cies.

The events of Rock­et Man high­light Musk’s abil­i­ty to trans­form fail­ure into oppor­tu­ni­ty, a recur­ring theme in his entre­pre­neur­ial jour­ney. Rather than being dis­suad­ed by obsta­cles, he embraced them as cat­a­lysts for inno­va­tion. His unsuc­cess­ful trip to Rus­sia did not mark the end of his space ambitions—it ignit­ed them. By choos­ing to build rock­ets instead of buy­ing them, Musk set the course for SpaceX to dis­rupt the aero­space indus­try, prov­ing that pri­vate com­pa­nies could com­pete in a field pre­vi­ous­ly dom­i­nat­ed by nation­al space agen­cies. This chap­ter marks the true begin­ning of SpaceX’s mis­sion, demon­strat­ing how audac­i­ty, per­sis­tence, and uncon­ven­tion­al think­ing can rede­fine the future of space explo­ration.