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