Author｜Zhang Peng

[Editor's Note] On June 12 local time, the most highly anticipated IPO in human commercial history—the listing of Elon Musk's SpaceX—successfully landed on NASDAQ. With businesses like X, xAI, and Starlink included, SpaceX not only raised $75 billion, but the initial surge pushed its market value to $2 trillion at one point.

The market value of SpaceX, like Musk's rockets, experiences great ups and downs, ultimately reaching great heights.

Since founding SpaceX in 2002, over 24 years, Musk and his space dreams have faced continuous skepticism, but this company, like its founder, has steadily advanced toward the goal of becoming a "multi-planetary species" despite the doubts.

The following article, written by Geek Park founder & president Zhang Peng, was penned six years ago when the Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched two astronauts into the designated orbit aboard the Dragon spacecraft. It analyzes the lesser-known sides behind the success of Silicon Valley's Iron Man and SpaceX from the perspective of a tech media in the first person.

In our latest podcast episode, Geek Park founder Zhang Peng further narrates anecdotes of his first conversation with Musk about commercial space travel in 2014 when he first came to China, while space compute investor Zhai Guanglong deeply analyzes the impacts and opportunities that space compute brings to the tech industry. You are welcome to scan and listen.

At 3:22 AM Beijing time on May 31, under the watchful eyes of netizens around the globe, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which had been standing at the launch pad for several days, finally succeeded in taking off as expected, with the Dragon spacecraft carrying two astronauts successfully entering the designated orbit.

This is the first commercial crewed spacecraft in human history, marking the beginning of commercial space travel for mankind. For Elon Musk, his seemingly insane plan to colonize Mars has taken a significant step forward.

In the past six years, I have been fortunate to have some interactions with Musk. In 2014, I invited him to make his first public appearance in China at the Geek Park conference; in 2015, I led a group of entrepreneurs to visit him in Silicon Valley (including Zhang Yiming); in 2016, I was invited to his press conference in Beijing, where I was fortunate to have a question acknowledged by him.

I am indeed a hardcore space fan. I remember in 2017, I specially recorded a congratulatory video with thousands of Geek Park fans, which I sent to him as a celebration of SpaceX's breakthrough progress.

Although our interactions were limited, they still provided me the opportunity to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the inner workings of this "Iron Man" and his unique thoughts. What I share today is what I recorded after an in-depth exchange with Elon Musk when he participated in the Geek Park conference six years ago.

After reading this article, you might gain a better understanding of what kind of person Musk is. When everyone is amazed by the greatness of SpaceX, you will find that all the differences in Musk were apparent even six years ago.

Falcon 9 Rocket Launch of SpaceX

"It's 500 light-years!" When Elon Musk and I almost simultaneously said this, we both burst into laughter. I didn't know what he was thinking, but I realized that there were probably very few people in the whole room who truly cared about that number.

This 500 light-years figure refers to the extraterrestrial planet "Kepler-186f," which was recently discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope and is closest in size and environment to Earth. During dinner, Professor Zhang Yaqin, who was sitting next to me, was discussing with Elon Musk about when humanity might land on Mars and mentioned that "NASA seems to have recently found a twin Earth 600 light-years away." Musk reacted faster than I did, almost correcting him without hesitation: "No, it's 500 light-years."

This news released by NASA was still very fresh, but Musk had already integrated it as "common knowledge" in his brain. And this moment was one of the brightest in his eyes on the first day of his public appearance in China.

This tech innovation field's hottest newcomer arrived in Beijing by private jet in the morning, and without a break, he went to Tesla's Beijing office, then attended Geek Park's "Singularity Conference," participated in a challenging two-and-a-half-hour interview with CCTV, then had business exchanges until 6:30 PM, and finally arrived at Geek Park's welcoming dinner. When I saw him, he appeared to be energetic, making one admire the dual-role CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who indeed possesses extraordinary energy.

However, Elon Musk is not a businessman who enjoys socializing or is good at generating publicity. As he put it, he sees himself more as "a somewhat crazy engineer." Don’t expect him to please or cater to others like those commercial elites who are familiar with public sentiment and gifted with words. When you ask questions that do not interest him or are too nonsensical for him to answer, he can become someone utterly unremarkable in conversation, even quickly moving to a "closed" mode in interactions. Yet, if you engage him with the right questions, you can see excitement reflected in his eyes and even body language.

But Musk knows he sometimes needs to repeatedly explain the same things to different people. Sometimes he indeed "squats down" to align with the views and expectations of different audiences. So, if it’s your first time meeting him, even if you ask questions that could easily be found through a search engine, questions he has answered many times, he will patiently explain again.

This is not because he inherently cares about your feelings or is intentionally accommodating his commercial interests but is driven by a profound self-awareness—he believes that most people haven't yet seen the right direction and need guidance; thus he doesn’t mind giving the "lost" some hints.

Of course, if you are obstinate and even unaware of your own confusion, he will not hesitate to give you a profoundly awkward cold shoulder, or even simply walk away.

The following exchanges took place during the warm-up discussions, waiting periods, departures, and of course, during the private conversations I had sitting next to him at the dinner, as well as some questions from other guests helping with translation. Since I was interjecting most of the time, the questions weren't very coherent or systematic, and my recollections may not be entirely accurate. But I believe everyone can still glean insights into the deep thoughts of this legendary geek.

My Communication with Elon Musk at the 2014 Geek Park Singularity Conference

Zhang Peng: Why did you insist on continuing even when you said there was a high chance Tesla might fail?

Elon Musk: I think someone needs to push to think about problems using a new framework. I once hoped and believed that a new trend of electric vehicles could arise within the traditional automotive industry, but I found they actually couldn't do it. So I believe I need to create a new way of thinking with Tesla to tell the industry that there are, in fact, different ways. If this thing succeeds, it is my luck, but what I truly hope to achieve is a change in the industry. Now we are actually licensing our technology to other auto manufacturers; I don’t feel like I need to replace them; I just hope they can follow the right path.

Zhang Peng: Why did you insist on establishing solar supercharging stations?

Elon Musk: Cost is the most critical factor, but especially in the Chinese market, reducing the energy consumption for converting coal to electricity is also significant. However, he mentioned a recent joke circulating in California that he thought was cool—if there were an apocalyptic scenario like in the movies, you could still drive a Tesla, because gasoline would run out if no one is extracting it, but the solar-powered supercharging stations could last a long time (although he was joking, I genuinely feel this logic aligns perfectly with his style).

Zhang Peng: It seems you didn't mention that Tesla Model S's biggest advantage over traditional cars is that it can undergo systematic remote upgrades to become better and better. That's actually a feature we really like, right?

Elon Musk: I don't like to mention details because I think Tesla cars are a systemic innovation; it’s not about one point as a selling point. But you can indeed upgrade and update your car anytime via wireless networks, making it a more useful and personalized means of transport. I believe that all the optimizations and tweaks related to driving and control that we see today and will see in the future can be optimized and resolved faster through such a mechanism.

Zhang Peng: But with your "cloud + terminal" layout, have you ever worried about future security issues in the cloud?

Elon Musk: You’re mentioning only theoretical possibilities, but no one has succeeded yet—not a single example. We’ve already taken precautions against this, and we've conducted many tests without discovering any potential vulnerabilities in this regard. In fact, I don't understand why you think someone would do that.

(Musk is showing a frown… From my understanding, Elon has a similar attitude toward issues like battery safety—taking a low-probability event and using it to affect the broader progress, he would see as an unconstructive argument. This has always been his style; his radical approach to Tesla's autonomous driving has sparked debates in the automotive circle. And regarding the Dragon spacecraft launched this time, he initially wanted to use the Falcon 9-style controlled recovery method, but NASA firmly disagreed, believing it was too risky. Musk finally compromised, reverting to the method of splashing down at sea, but I don't know if he truly agrees with that in his heart).

Zhang Peng: Why do you want to be the CEO of two companies?

Elon Musk: I actually don't want to be a CEO at all. What I truly aspire to be is an engineer who can design and realize products according to my own ideas. In fact, I’ve tried twice to find a CEO to run the company, but I found that it doesn't work. I realized that if I don't get personally involved, many things will go wrong. But clearly, if you want to do something you believe in, it's hard to find strangers to help you realize it.

Zhang Peng: Why are you so insistent on pursuing high-risk ventures like SpaceX?

Elon Musk: When I was a child, I loved reading science fiction novels. I have always thought that exploring space is extremely interesting and meaningful. The reason I do rockets is not that I personally want to go to space—going up is quite simple (how cool!). But I believe that if ordinary people cannot enter space, humanity will always be confined to Earth and unable to explore the universe, and thus will never truly become a multi-planetary civilization. We must believe this is the right direction because failing to achieve this makes human civilization fragile.

We must significantly reduce the costs of entering space, and the true path to reducing costs is not waiting for those technologies in science fiction to fall from the sky; we need to reduce costs through recoverable methods based on mature rocket technology. I believe this cost reduction can be at least by a factor of 100. Don't you think that’s a worthwhile endeavor?

Zhang Peng: You developed SpaceX for humanity to explore the universe, and you founded Tesla hoping everyone would use electric cars instead of wanting to dominate an industry. Yet, both of these endeavors have faced possible failure and put all your wealth on the line; many people probably can’t understand your thinking.

Elon Musk: So, I've said before that it's hard for others to help me with these things; I can only do it myself. I’ve said I might not succeed, but some things must have someone stand up to take action.

Zhang Peng: Do you ever consider going into politics? Wouldn’t it be easier to promote your environmental protection and space exploration ideals if you became president?

Elon Musk: I haven’t thought about this issue; I don’t think I would do it. What I can promote is using products and technology to drive a good direction, rather than going into politics and using laws to change the world into what I want it to be. For instance, with this Tesla car, I hope my users choose it not just because opting for an electric vehicle is a responsible behavior model for the future world, but also because it’s genuinely a good product, so it becomes their choice. I don’t think being president would solve this issue; I’d be more suited to being an engineer and designer.

Zhang Peng: You somehow managed to convince NASA and the U.S. government to allow you to do rocket business; how did you accomplish that?

Elon Musk: I earned that trust step by step. The research I funded myself was what they weren’t doing. And then they see you’ve spent money and made serious investments, and when you achieve results, they give you the opportunity to try further. I think that’s a normal process; persuading others is more about really believing in something and reaching a critical point where everyone can see hope.

Zhang Peng: Why did SpaceX achieve cost reductions in launches when so many experts and resources at NASA could not?

Elon Musk: Well, I think the real reason NASA cannot achieve it is precisely because they have too many resources.

Zhang Peng: What do you think of the recent companies providing suborbital tourism services?

Elon Musk: Pfft! (This is purely a voiceover; the actual scene was him shrugging and shaking his head, then refusing to answer this question. Therefore, the only word I can think of to describe this in Chinese is that. Clearly, he had no interest in goals aimed at satisfying recreational demands because this does not address his grand objective of creating a multi-planetary civilization for humanity.)

[Postscript]

After reading the article, let’s explore the significance of the successful launch of SpaceX's crewed spacecraft.

In my view, this is not a simple commercial rocket launch; it represents the maturity of commercial space travel, capable of conducting crewed missions—crown jewel-level tasks.

If we say that the space age for humanity began in the 1950s, the starting point of this era was driven and promoted by intergovernmental competition. After the United States won the moon landing race, the scientific purpose of space travel maintained steady output, but it was still in the form of government projects, meaning that even though space technology has been continually advancing, the moon landing remains humanity's highest achievement in space today.

Apollo 11 mission astronaut Buzz Aldrin stands next to the American flag on the lunar surface, marking humanity's first moon landing mission.

The significance of commercial space travel lies in making space and cosmic exploration no longer a project funded by the government but an "industry" that can inject more wisdom and capital and create a positive value cycle. Such stories have been played out repeatedly in the fields of aviation, communications, and computing.

Only in this way can we break free from the paradox Musk mentioned earlier: "progress cannot occur because of excessive resources," because business essentially seeks efficiency and progress, which must rely on innovation, standardization, and scaling.

Commercial space travel will truly open up a space age for all humanity, and it can even be said that it marks the beginning of a new chapter in which humanity progresses from being able to touch space to genuinely willing to walk toward a multi-planetary civilization. Moreover, business is the key "hormone" behind, more potent than "curiosity," ultimately enabling humanity to move forward in strides.

Six years ago, I asked Musk if I would see affordable space travel opportunities for ordinary people in my lifetime. He firmly replied, "We definitely can."

But this will certainly be a difficult process. Up until just before this successful launch, SpaceX was in the early research phase with the Starship rocket, which experienced an explosion during testing, and this rocket aims to carry 100 people to space at once. If this successful combination of Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft is a "transport boat" to space, then Musk is clearly already planning a real "ferry" in his mind.

He hopes that by 2050, before he turns 80, humanity could have a million people colonizing Mars. This idea, which seems crazy to others today, clearly has a well-defined roadmap and timeline racing ahead.

The two astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who completed this launch mission, prepare before the launch.

I believe Musk will not be the only key figure in humanity's embrace of the "true space age." He is a "breaker of winds," running ahead to confront the greatest resistance, but he will inspire more people to excel in the competition.

It is predictable that more capital and intelligent individuals will join this industry, and the new generation of Chinese astronauts will likewise have the opportunity to become a force leading humanity's progress.

I hope that the "dream of going to space once in this life" that many people cherish can come true sooner because of the commercial space industry.

Wishing Musk good luck!

Wishing all space enthusiasts good luck!

And wishing human civilization good luck!