Cited on HN 7 times, 2021, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Used as a neutral outsider's first-hand account of SpaceX's fast engineering culture and Musk's hands-on role.
A clip of Sandy Munro, a veteran automotive engineer, describing his visit to a SpaceX Starship design review and meeting Elon Musk. He says he was struck by how deeply Musk is involved in engineering.
“Sandy Munro was invited to SpaceX design review session, so he has some first-hand comments about that” (HN, 2021)
This aligned perfectly with the thread, [this video] I went on a tour of Blue Origin, I learned next to nothing. It looked like a the rich kids house that had a coleco and a neo geo. The picture they paint of spacex is one of being in continuous flow vs cautious pessimism.
Illustrates spacex's continuous flow versus cautious pessimism
Elon spends nearly as much time at SpaceX as he does Tesla. There's no question that Elon mucks in at the lowest levels of engineering at SpaceX. If you want evidence from a reasonably neutral observer, take Sandy Munro (himself an engineer who has worked on everything from cars to aeroplanes). He recently interviewed Elon, ostensibly about Tesla but the interview was in a meeting room at SpaceX. After the interview he was invited to a two hour design review meeting and was "blown away" at Elon's depth of involvement. [this video] (6:10 to 8:45)
Neutral observer evidence of Musk's engineering involvement
Elon spends nearly as much time at SpaceX as he does Tesla. There's no question that Elon regularly mucks in at the lowest levels of engineering at SpaceX. If you want evidence from a reasonably neutral observer, take Sandy Munro (himself an engineer who has worked on everything from cars to aeroplanes). He recently interviewed Elon, ostensibly about Tesla but the interview was in a meeting room at SpaceX. After the interview he was invited to a two hour design review meeting and was "blown away" at Elon's depth of involvement. [this video] (6:10 to 8:45)
Neutral observer evidence of Musk's engineering involvement
Here's a video from someone who observed a design review for Starship[1]. From the sound of it, Elon is in the thick of it in the R&D engineering. [1] [this video]
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