# SpaceX began as a way to make Mars affordable

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/spacex-began-as-a-way-to-make-mars-affordable/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) · Elon Musk is a technology entrepreneur. · Co-founded PayPal, founded SpaceX and xAI, and has been Tesla's CEO since 2008.
- Host: [Garry Tan](https://realalpha.app/people/garry-tan/) · President & CEO, Y Combinator · Co-founded Posterous and Initialized Capital, an early Coinbase backer.
- Host: [Harj Taggar](https://realalpha.app/people/harj-taggar/) · Managing partner, Y Combinator · Co-founded Auctomatic with the Collison brothers and later Triplebyte.
- Host: [Diana Hu](https://realalpha.app/people/diana-hu/) · Managing partner, Y Combinator · CTO of Escher Reality; after Niantic bought it, ran AR for Pokémon GO.
- Host: [Jared Friedman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-friedman/) · Managing partner, Y Combinator · Co-founded Scribd, which YC funded in 2006; has advised 20+ YC unicorns.
- Show: Lightcone
- Episode: [Elon Musk: Digital Superintelligence, Multiplanetary Life, How to Be Useful](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/), Jun 19, 2025
- Moment: 13:10 to 16:56 of the episode (4 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/spacex-began-as-a-way-to-make-mars-affordable/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=790

## Quote

> “the problem was not that there was insufficient will to go to Mars, but there was **no way to do so without breaking the budget**”
> — [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) at [16:11](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=971) · Lightcone

## Takeaways

1. Musk first explored a small Mars mission to inspire public interest.
2. Russian missile prices made buying rockets an impractical route.
3. He started SpaceX to advance rocket technology for Mars.

## About this segment

Elon Musk found no NASA plan to send people to Mars and concluded rockets were too costly. That realization led him to start SpaceX to lower the cost of spaceflight.

From “Elon Musk: Digital Superintelligence, Multiplanetary Life, How to Be Useful”, Jun 19, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[13:23](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=803) Well, I was kind of curious as to why we had not sent anyone to Mars. And I went on the NASA website to find out when we're sending people to Mars, and there was no date. I thought maybe it was just hard to find on the website. But in fact, there was no real plan to send people to Mars. So then, you know, this is such a long story, so I don't want to take up too much time here. I think we're all listening with rapt attention.

[13:50](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=830) so i was actually i was on the long island expressway with my friend adair resi we're like housemates in college and and they was asking me what i'm what we're gonna do what am i gonna do after paypal and i was like it's like i don't know i guess maybe i'd like to do something philanthropic in space because i didn't think i could actually do anything commercial in space because that seemed like the purview of nations um so um but you know i'm kind of curious as to we're going to send people to mars and and that's when i was like oh it's on the website and i started digging on not there's nothing on the nasa website so then i started digging in and um and uh and i'm i'm definitely summarizing a lot here but um i i i uh my first idea was to do a philanthropic mission to mars called life to mars where it would send a a small greenhouse with season dehydrated

[14:44](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=884) nutrient gel land land that on mars and grow you know hydrate the gel and then you'd have this this great sort of money shot of green plants on a red background um for the longest time i by the way i didn't realize money shot i think is a porn reference but uh but anyway the point is that that would be the great shot of green plants on a red background and to try to inspire uh you know nasa and the public to to send astronauts to to mars As I learned more, I came to realize, and along the way, by the way, I went to Russia in like 2001 and 2002 to buy ICBMs, which is like, that's an adventure.

[15:26](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=926) You know, you go and meet with Russian high command and say, I'd like to buy some ICBMs. This was to get to space as a rocket. Not to nuke anyone, but they had to, as a result of arms reduction talks, they had to actually destroy a bunch of their big nuclear missiles. So I was like, well, how about if we take two of those, you know, minus the nuke, add an additional upper stage for Mars? But it was kind of trippy, you know, being in Moscow.

[16:00](https://realalpha.app/v/cFIlta1GkiE/?t=960) what of 2001 negotiating with like the Russian military to buy ICVMs like that's crazy um and but they kept also like raising the price on me so that so like literally it's kind of like the opposite of what a negotiation should should do so I was like man these things are getting really expensive and and then I came to realize that actually the problem was not that there was insufficient will to go to Mars, but there was no way to do so without breaking the budget, even breaking the NASA budget. So that's where I decided to start SpaceX to advance rocket technology to the point where we could send people to Mars. And that was in 2002.