Walter Isaacson

I was concerned that if I didn’t study business, I would be forced to work for someone who did

we must have inspiring things in the world.” Life cannot be merely about solving problems, he felt. It also had to be about pursuing great dreams. “That’s what can get us up in the morning.”

Unless this fourth launch attempt succeeded, it would be the end of SpaceX and probably of the wacky notion that space pioneering could be led by private entrepreneurs. It might also be the end of Tesla. “We wouldn’t be able to get any new funding for Tesla,” Musk says. “People would be like, ‘Look at that guy whose rocket company failed, he’s a loser.’ ”

Antonio Gracias tried to cheer everyone up by saying how the best lessons in life come from failures. “Given the options,” Musk replied, “I prefer to learn from success.”

Rockets that could hop up and back to the edge of space might be fun for space tourists, but it would take rockets with the power of the Falcon 9 to do missions such as launching satellites and reaching the International Space Station. Landing and reusing such a rocket would be an accomplishment of a different order of magnitude.

That prospect, like all hellish dramas, seemed to fill him with dark energy. “I look forward to working alongside you journeying through hell,” he told his startled audience. “As the saying goes, if you’re going through hell, just keep going.”

Ren’s big challenge was to find a way to do manufacturing in China. He could either wear down Musk’s resistance and have Tesla form a joint venture, which is what every other car company had done, or he could convince China’s top leaders to change a law that had defined Chinese manufacturing growth for three decades. He discovered that the latter was easier.

On that October night during his work binge at the Cape, when Musk asked to speak to Dontchev, the engineer had just gotten home after three straight days of work and cracked open a bottle of wine. At first he ignored the unknown number on his phone, but then one of his colleagues called his wife. Tell Kiko to get back to the hangar right away. Musk wants him. “I’m like super tired, half-drunk, haven’t slept in days, so I got in the car, bought a pack of cigarettes to get me going, and made it back to the hangar,” he says. “I worried about getting pulled over for drunk driving, but that seemed less of a risk than ignoring Elon.”

He admitted there was a reasonable chance that it would not work, but it was better to try and fail rather than analyze the issue for months. “If you make this thing fast, you can find out fast. And then you can fix it fast.” He eventually succeeded in converting most of the parts into stainless steel.

Two days before AI Day, Musk held a prep meeting with the Tesla team virtually from Boca Chica. That day also included a meeting with the Texas Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office to get support for Starship launches, a Tesla finance meeting, a discussion of solar roof finances, a meeting about future launches of civilians, a contentious walk through the tents where Starship was being assembled, an interview for a Netflix documentary, and his second late-night visit to the tract houses where Brian Dow’s team was installing solar roofs. After midnight, he got on his plane and headed for Palo Alto.