Chapter 150

In early 2022, Musk orchestrates a public presentation of the stacked Starship rocket at Boca Chica, then in August pushes the team to accelerate testing timelines dramatically. After a late-night strategy meeting and an impromptu tiki bar party, Musk orders Booster 7 moved to the launchpad in a single day instead of ten, launching another intense operational surge.

Musk announces via Twitter a February 10, 2022 public showing of Starship stacked by Mechazilla's chopstick arms, using social media as a forcing mechanism to meet the deadline. Before the presentation, he dines with three NASA directors—Janet Petro, Lisa Watson-Morgan, and Vanessa Wyche—at Flaps restaurant, discussing declining birthrates and China's space progress as threats to American leadership. His young son X attends, embodying Musk's free-range parenting approach. At the presentation, Krebs expresses satisfaction with the tower's completion despite earlier conflicts with Musk. Later, Inspiration4 astronaut Jared Isaacman reinforces that Musk was wise not to join Branson and Bezos in space tourism. By July 2022, Starlink satellite production in Seattle is outpacing launch capacity, prompting Musk to send Mark Juncosa to Boca Chica to shake up management. During an August 4 video call from Tesla's shareholder meeting, Musk grows angry at the team's ten-day timeline for booster testing, calling it "a mega fail" and demanding nightly seven-day-a-week meetings. He arrives at Boca Chica late that night with X and Grimes for an extended strategy session where discussion meanders into film references. Juncosa rallies the demoralized team by breaking into the employee tiki bar and throwing an impromptu party, encouraging risk-taking. Around 3:24 a.m., Musk texts from his house to revise the timeline: Booster 7 will be moved to the launchpad by midnight that same day, not in ten days, without waiting for all engines to be installed. The team executes the surge, and by midnight, the booster is positioned on the pad. When a hydraulic line ruptures, dousing Grimes and X in fluid, Musk jokes about the smell while noting his son's concerning fearlessness around danger.