Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Hello, I am Sim Book; CEO of Apple. I had spent 12 years with technology at IBM previously. I have been on Time's World's Most 100 Influential People in 2012.

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: You may have not heard my name before, but I'm Eddy Span, a venture capitalist who’s invested and mentored PayPal, X.com and SpaceX; amongst others. I've practiced corporate law in Silicon Valley and am a former investment banker.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Hello, I am Melon Tusk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. I also happen to be the CTO. There are many businesses that I own, and SpaceX is one of them, too. Many people call me the vision behind Tesla. I don't fully agree with them.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: So, SpaceX - the next big thing from the legendary Melon Tusk. We are generally only talking about technology and consumers in this world. It feels good to talk about the outside world for a change.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Sim, it's not just me. The entire team was very passionate and motivated for this. And yes, I'm excited to talk about the outside world, too. It's very inspiring to work towards making humans an interplanetary species.

Jim Cornell (Co-Founder, SpaceX) :
Founder: Absolutely, we've always looked at the stars and wondered what's out there. We've explored space and now know a lot about it. But when it comes to physically going to space, there are still many challenges.

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: The most depressing part of space exploration and travel is that it's still controlled by the government. Physicists and scientists can't execute their fresh ideas because of too much red-tape.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: Precisely. So, we started Space Exploration Technology (SpaceX for short) in 2002. And I hadn't joined Tesla Motors until 2003. So yes, in a way, I was thinking of moving out before making this world better.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Based on what I heard, what can be said to be the purpose of SpaceX?

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: When I invested in SpaceX, Melon had very arrogantly given a statement which I thought was insane. He told me 'SpaceX is created to build technology to make space travel cheaper and enable the colonization of Mars.'

Jim Cornell (Co-Founder, SpaceX) :
Founder: Yes, so we started off by designing and building reusable rockets. Their travel characteristics would be similar to current commercial airlines.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Let me get this straight - a single rocket can ship out to space with cargo and passengers, re-enter earth, land back and be ready for the next flight?

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: And be ready for the next flight. All of it in just a few hours.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Is this even possible? Hollywood movies make me think otherwise. How can a single rocket be used multiple times? And if that's possible, why aren't we doing it already?

Jim Cornell (Co-Founder, SpaceX) :
Founder: You've got to understand the constraints here. When SpaceX approached Russian Space Program to gain access to refurbish their rocket, we were turned down three times. We then realized that the rocket technology we use is the same as the 1960s. If we want to change it, we've got to start from scratch.

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: And there were very few people that believed in private space travel, so I had to build everything from my own pocket. Luckily, we had Eddy and others chip in because they shared our vision.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: So you did? Built everythig by yourself? And how much did it cost you? This is like nuclear technology - a very expensive business to be in.

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: Oh yes, it's quite costly, actually. But in order to make it economically viable, we manufacture 80% of the parts in-house. Most of them are 3D printed. Just like Henry Ford made automobiles cheaper, we'll make Space Travel cheaper.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: I understand, but how cheap can you go? You can cut down costs by 10-20-30%, but it still costs billions in space programs, right?

Jim Cornell (Co-Founder, SpaceX) :
Founder: Let me put things in perspective. NASA takes anything between $100-260 million for one rocket launch. SpaceX Falcon9 takes $57 million only - that's around 1/4th of NASA's cost.

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: Combine that with the fact that the rocket it reusable, so you write off costs multiple times. The fuel cost per launch is around $200,000 only.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: No wonder there's so much excitement around SpaceX. This is a quantum leap in cost savings. But we can't just be happy about reducing the costs if it isn't giving us the desired results. What are SpaceX's achievements so far?

Melon Tusk (CEO, Tesla) :
Melon: We've come a long way. Let me properly list them down for you:
2008: The first privately funded liquid propelled rocket to reach space.
2010: Successfully launched orbit and recovered a spacecraft.
2012: We sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS)

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: Let me continue. Even I want to speak some good things about the company I invested in. :) In 2013, We delivered a satellite beyond the orbit; we've already flown to the ISS (International Space Station) 6 times.
2015: We put 11 satellites for a customer and successfully returned the booster back to the ground.
This didn't come without failure though. Our previous landing had failed due to a faulty steel strut.
Jim, let bygones be bygones. Thanks to Melon's leadership we are on the right track.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: Exactly my thoughts. But this begs the question: How does someone who supervised coders at PayPal supervise rocket scientists at SpaceX? It's simple. We've got to learn what we don't know. I picked up textbooks and started learning so that I can speak to the scientists.

Eddy Span (Private Investor) :
Investor: Melon is a smart man. In the initial days, he walked up to scientists and started quizzing them on their knowledge of expertise. Eventually, they realized that the CEO wasn't testing their knowledge, but actually learning from them. And he didn't stop until he's learnt at least 90% of what the other person knew.

Jim Cornell (Co-Founder, SpaceX) :
Founder: Although we parted ways because I'd doubted the future of SpaceX, I must confess. It is Melon's persistence that gets things done.

Sim Book (CEO, Apple) :
Apple: In business circles, we often speak about the one crucial factor that's enabling all of Melon's companies to grow. It's his ability to not imagine failure. While we consider the rational possibility of failing, he is willing to try repeatedly until he succeeds.