#40: The Secret to SpaceX’s Success: Insights from Their Fourth Hire (feat. Hans Koenigsmann)

NewSpaceVision

Technology

4 • 4 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Before SpaceX was SpaceX—before reusable rockets landed on drone ships or astronauts flew aboard privately built spacecraft—it was just an idea. And Hans Koenigsmann was there when that idea took shape.

Interviewed by Elon Musk in his living room and brought on as SpaceX’s fourth technical hire, Hans was a cornerstone of the team that turned an audacious dream into a company that now dominates the launch industry. From assembling avionics systems with a credit card budget to solving the mysteries of rocket anomalies, Hans’s fingerprints are all over the milestones that redefined space exploration.

In this episode, he takes us back to the scrappy, electric early days of SpaceX, where desks were doors and failures were inevitable—but never final. He shares how his German engineering roots collided with California’s startup chaos, the art of managing risk when lives and millions of dollars are on the line, and what it feels like to lead through moments of triumph and catastrophe.

We also dive into the future of space: how Starship could reshape the entire industry, why reusability isn’t just economical but essential, and where Europe fits into this rapidly shifting landscape.

Hans is candid, insightful, and brimming with hard-won wisdom—this is a conversation you’ll want to sit down for.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-koenigsmann-2a141b5/

https://www.instagram.com/hanskoenigsmann/

https://x.com/HansKoenigsmann

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Transcript

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0:00.0	resources in the beginning, right? We had a credit card. And it was interesting to literally start working a rocket with a credit card. Because that's basically where it starts. You make phone calls and you buy stuff and then you put it together and you make it somehow work over the next couple months. I actually, it's funny. I found my notes from actually the first week. And in the first week, we were already talking about building a computer and running the gas generator with it in Mojave on the test site.
0:27.8	Wow. And that was the first week. I mean, that's crazy. And we knew really quickly what we want to do.
0:33.5	It wasn't always the best thing, probably, but because it was fast, it was just what we needed at the time.
0:39.3	I want to say the team between also Elon and the WBPs was really, really good.
0:44.3	When we missed something, we would just walk by the other two wiggle and say, hey, I need help here or found this,
0:50.3	what you want to change this to this approach rather, and we can save like a week.
0:55.0	Everything was down to days and everything was really, really dynamic.
0:59.0	I want to say communication is a big thing.
1:01.0	Elon was basically trying to remove all barriers to communication.
1:05.0	So we all set basically in one big room.
1:07.0	We had no privacy.
1:08.0	We were all sitting in cubicles.
1:10.0	We all got cell phones from the company and that was was 2002, right? Yeah. And it worked really well.
1:13.6	All right. Yeah. The clock is started.
1:20.6	Three, Steve, two, one.
1:23.6	We chose to go to the world.
1:25.6	Lift-off. We have a lift-on.
1:28.7	Hi, and welcome back to the New Space Vision podcast, sponsored by Live YouO, where we
1:32.6	discuss New Space Technology, Finance and Innovation with executives, founders, and more
1:37.2	exciting people from the startup and new space ecosystem.
1:40.1	I am Danny Seidel.
1:41.3	And I'm Sam Shivara, and together we are the founders of the Earth Observation Company
	...

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