Elon Musk's Most Unexpected Success Is the SpaceX Live-Stream

The company is just as good at launching browser tabs as they are rockets.

Here's How Elon Musk Plans to Send Tourists to Space

Provide news feedback or report an error

Confidential tip?

Send a tip to our reporters

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

By Dana Hull

May 26, 2016 at 4:01 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

First, Elon Musk's SpaceX disrupted the aerospace industry with rockets that were designed to be reused. Now the company is turning heads with its Internet live-streams.

SpaceX's live launch webcasts from the company's Mission Control in Hawthorne, Calif., are becoming must-watch events for space nerds and common folk alike. The events are an equally informative and entertaining crash course in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) topics with a heavy dose of rocket propulsion and flip maneuvers thrown in.

Each time the company launches a rocket, young SpaceX employees and engineers—including a lot of women—take turns as enthusiastic, funny hosts. Not sure what a faring is? Curious about the white smoke that's "totally normal"? Need to bone up on the difference between low-earth and geostationary orbits? They've got you.