Starbase Tour with Elon Musk [PART 1 // Summer 2021]

Caption notes

On a 2021 Starbase tour, Tim Dodd asks Elon Musk why the booster’s grid fins were being designed without folding. Musk uses the question to describe his engineering sequence: challenge requirements, try removing parts or steps, then simplify or optimize, shorten the cycle, and automate last. He also recounts an automotive production experience in which a team could waste effort speeding up a step before establishing what it was for. The conversation covers grid fins, Raptor, stage separation and lunar-landing ideas at the time, including estimates, open questions and conditions still to be tested. This guide focuses on spoken engineering tradeoffs. Site footage, performance, configurations and project progress were not independently verified.