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WBUR Podcasts, Boston.

This is on point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi.

In 2008, a fledgling space company was working to get its first rocket off the ground.

The first launch attempt made in 2006, so a couple years before 2008, well, that first attempt

failed. A fuel leak led to the rocket being engulfed by a giant fireball in the sky. The second

and third attempts made it past the first stage of flight, but then came the separation phase,

and the rocket failed, never reaching orbit.

The company's top engineer referred to the anomaly as a rud, or rapid, unscheduled, disassembly.

The engineer's obfuscation of simpler terms that he could have used, such as catastrophe, explosion, or total failure of the second stage engine.

So after three unsuccessful attempts to reach orbit, the company was hemorrhaging money and on the verge of bankruptcy.

It almost went out of business.

But they did manage one successful launch.

And then came a savior in the form of you, the American taxpayer,

via the federal government, and a $1.6 billion NASA cargo contract.

Well, that company is now worth more than $400 billion.

...