Chris Williamson
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Surely there's a plan.
And there was no plan.
And he was coming off of his first exit with PayPal.
So he had $200 million or something in the bank.
And he's like, I'll just spend $100 million.
to like see if I can increase NASA's budget.
It was pure philanthropy.
He's like, I'm going to buy a rocket.
I'm going to make a little greenhouse.
I'm going to ship it to Mars and I'm going to get a photo of a little baby plant on the red planet.
It'll be the first life on another planet and that'll catalyze this movement and inspire people.
That was the origin story.
Yeah, it was called Mars Oasis.
That was the thing.
And to do this, he like went around trying to buy a rocket.
He's like, why are these rockets so fucking expensive?
He went to Russia and tried to buy an intercontinental ICBM.
And they laughed at him and spit on him and like fucked him around and he got pissed.
And so he's like, maybe the problem is that space launch costs are so high.
Why are rockets so expensive?