Chris Williamson

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?

Can't they be done better?

And so he gathered a bunch of rocket engineers who had experience at his house.

And I think this is an interesting part of the story.

He did a series of Saturday sessions of like,

first principles, let's look at all the historical things, but let's also say like how good could good be with all the modern technology, modern design, like is there a design that we can come up with that would be a massive improvement in space launch costs such that this would be possible?