Hello World
Take a Rocket Tour of Los Angeles With a SpaceX Founder
Tom Mueller was Elon Musk’s first head of propulsion. Now he has his own startup and is plugged into LA’s space scene.
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When Elon Musk decided to start a rocket company in the early 2000s, he knew one of the first key hires would be his head of propulsion. In other words, the person who would build the engines for the rockets. Musk needed someone with experience from traditional aerospace who knew what they were doing but also someone with a free spirit who wanted to do things differently and help Space Exploration Technologies Corp. upend the rocket business.
As luck would have it, Musk was introduced to Tom Mueller, and as you’ll see on the latest episode of Hello World, rockets haven’t been the same since.