SpaceX launched its first integrated Starship rocket, which may one day take us to the moon and Mars. But this time, it exploded mid-air to the sound of roaring applause. However, as Elon Musk pointed out, this was far from a failure. Glenn explains why this launch changes everything, to the point where future generations may ask where you were when it happened: "This is the first step to Star Trek."
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So wait. So wait.
It just blew up.
STU: Yeah. They certainly seem to be planned.
GLENN: Yeah, but doesn't that seem counterintuitive?
STU: Yeah. You know what, counterintuitive is a good worded.
GLENN: Because I think when you put people in there, you won't think, oh, it definitely was.
I don't -- I don't understand. Okay. So the reason why this is so important. And it will back more important, when it actually goes to the moon and returns. And then the next step is with people.
This gives us the ability, to launch things into space, at a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the cost.
Okay? This is the first step to a moon base.
Is this is the first step to Star Trek? This is the first step to a base, a permanent base on the moon.
Where we can make our own fuel, go up. Get everybody up there.
Build gigantic ships. Because you won't have to take them out of our atmosphere anymore.
So you can build gigantic ships.
Fuel them on the moon. And head on out.
That's -- that's the reason why.
STU: Head on out. Like anywhere, really.
You would be able to explore in ways that haven't been conceived of really.
GLENN: They are going to use nuclear power -- I would imagine, a nuclear power plant. I mean, if things go wrong.
STU: Environmentals will shut that down.
GLENN: Really?
STU: You can't have nuclear power. What about the moon's environment.
GLENN: Yeah. Right.
So they will -- they will build it to be nuclear-powered, or some other sustainable, you know, constantly renewable kind of energy.
Once you put that up on the moon, and you get all the components, and you build something, you can be constant voyagers.
STU: Hmm. Wow.
Because I don't follow this stuff at all. I really don't. Every time Elon Musk launches something, it takes over Twitter, for approximately two hours. That's my level of following it.
What's the innovation here? The size? This is the biggest one ever built, or most powerful ever built.
GLENN: Yes, most powerful. This is bigger than the Saturn 5, that launched Apollo.
The -- the way that it can come back. Those engines and everything else, are so expensive.
They just blew it up. Okay?
NASA used to just lose them in the water. Okay?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: But you can't use them ever again. Not this one. So it's reusable. So you can just refuel it.
And it is able to have a turn around of like three hours.
So it could launch things into space, one of them could launch something into space. Come back down. Land on the platform. Refuel. Reload. Put another payload on it. Relaunch again.
Okay. That's -- that's -- you never had that.
STU: That's incredible.
GLENN: Yeah. I mean, Apollo 13 was the anniversary I think of Apollo 13 making it back to earth this week.
Apollo 13. There's no help coming.
You're stranded on the moon. You're in space, you're in space.
Up until we have the space station. We have to -- if there's something wrong, we can hitch a ride, with another country, to get up into space.
But we don't have the ability to launch overnight. Here, let's go.
This does. This will take what it costs per pound.
I don't know what it used to cost. But it was really expensive. Really expensive, per pound.
In the tens of thousands of dollars. You launch a satellite, you're paying a lot of money, per pound.
STU: Per pound, or per ounce?
GLENN: It's per ounce, but per pound.
Let's just say that per ounce.
I'm making this number up. Let's just say it was the tens of thousands. Because I'm not sure where that goes.
It's now like, I think like 20 -- hang on. I'll look at what the price will be. What they're projecting.
It will be 57 cents per ounce.
STU: That's a saving. That's a savings.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: I can't even ship mail at that point, at this point.
GLENN: I know. I know. So now, you can take all the infrastructure that you need up to the moon.
And at a reasonable price. Changes everything.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Is this a remarkable day. I was just listening to the all-in podcast. With David Sacks and his friends.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: And they have been on this AI rant, for the last couple of weeks. And these guys are really, really smart. And it's weird. Because I feel like they're just discovering some of this stuff.
Like, wow. It's really changing things quickly. Yeah! And today, last week, they were saying, we should have some sort of government regulation.
And David Sacks and a couple of others, were like, no, no, no, no.
I don't -- it's too soon. One of the other guys said, too soon.
What are we waiting for? At the rate of change, what are we waiting for, a month?
And this week, it started with one of the guys going, okay.
It's time now.
We have to have regulation. That was seven days. The reason why he said it is, yesterday, yesterday, somebody put a chatbot on to a task to be a personal assistant.
And the things that it can do. It's everything in your life. Everything in your life.
The things that it can do. Because it reached out to other bots. And then started saying, oh, I -- I need to send letters and organize mail.
That bot, you can do it. No human was involved. I got to go find that technology. Oh, I can get it here. So that's part of it. I need airline booking. There's another bought up. Here's I got it here.
And it created itself.
That was yesterday. And David Sacks said, we are -- we used to measure giant leaps in years or decades.
For instance, how many years did it take to go from version one of the i Phone to version two.
It's been out since 2007. What are we up to? Version 11.
13 or 14?
Okay. Been a around. Thirteen or 14.
He said we used to measure in decades. Then in years.
We now are measuring in weeks and days. And I said out loud, as I was listening to them, it's about to become hours.
It will become major improvements. Major discoveries. Major advances in technology. In hours.
You will -- we are going to have a time, where something like we just saw, you know, the spaceship lifting off. Will be like, oh, my gosh.
I can't believe that that's what -- that that just happened.
The next day, we won't be talking about it.
And not because there's some political scandal. But there's something even more incredible.
The next day.
We're just at the beginning. You are living in the most remarkable time of human history, right now.
You want to be -- you want to be positive about things. I mean, you know, really.
Things that you really -- will worry about, you know, as we cross that bridge. And that bridge is coming sooner than anybody thinks.
But right now, the possibility is truly endless.
You're about to think it, and it becomes. We -- we are two years away from, there's no Pixar.
We don't need Pixar. You'll be able to go, I love the Simpsons. Hey, have Bart comment on this.
And Homer, he has this point of view on this topic of today's news.
Enter. Done.
You have a half-hour of Simpson's episode. Okay?
It's going to change everything. Everything.
Because that's just the entertainment side. That's not the side making billions and billions and trillions of dollars.
Whole world is about to change. It's really exciting.