Episode 3: Planet B

Summary

Summary of "X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story"

Episode: 3: Planet B
Release Date: March 28, 2025
Hosts: Jill Lepore, Pushkin Industries, BBC Radio 4

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1. The Spectacle of the Falcon Heavy Launch

Timestamp: 02:54 - 04:07

The episode opens with a vivid description of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch from Kennedy Space Center in 2018. Jill Lepore sets the scene under "blue skies streaked with clouds," highlighting the grandeur of the event where Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, accompanied by the fictional "Starman," was sent into space. The inclusion of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy on a space-proof quartz compact disc underscores Musk's commitment to preserving human knowledge for "a billion years" (02:54).

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2. Unveiling 'Muskism': A New Capitalism

Timestamp: 05:36 - 06:29

Jill Lepore introduces the concept of "muskism," which she defines as "extravagant extreme capitalism" intertwined with futuristic ambitions. This ideology merges stock market dynamics with dreams rooted in science fiction, positioning Musk as a figure driven by visions beyond conventional capitalism. Elon Musk's early vision during his university years—to focus on the Internet, sustainable energy, and making life multiplanetary—lays the foundation for this discussion (05:36).

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3. The Science Fiction Influence

Timestamp: 06:29 - 07:50

Musk's aspirations for SpaceX are likened to "Douglas Adams fan fiction," drawing parallels between his real-world endeavors and the imaginative realms of science fiction. The Tesla Roadster's payload, featuring Starman and Asimov's works, serves as a bridge between fiction and Musk's tangible projects. The episode delves into how The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Asimov's Foundation Series have influenced Musk's approach to space exploration and humanity's future (06:29, 07:50).

Notable Quote:
*"The Tesla roadster that Musk sent up into space had a copy of Asimov inside, and it also had 'Don't Panic' on its dashboard." (07:50)

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4. Historical Context of Human Extinction Fears

Timestamp: 09:24 - 13:29

Thomas Moynihan, author of X: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction, discusses the evolution of anxiety surrounding human extinction. From Enlightenment-era discoveries of species extinction to Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation, the episode traces how these concerns have permeated culture and influenced figures like Musk and Bezos. The 1990s saw a surge in tech communities obsessing over existential risks, including artificial intelligence, which became central to muskism's narrative of engineering salvation (09:24, 13:29).

Notable Quote:
"Apocalypse secures a sense of an ending, whereas extinction anticipates the ending of sense." – Thomas Moynihan (09:50)

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5. The 1990s: A Decade of Convergence

Timestamp: 14:47 - 17:20

The episode highlights the 1990s as a pivotal decade where technological optimism met growing existential fears. Influential works like Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy and Robert Zubrin's The Case for Mars ignited public imagination about terraforming and colonizing Mars. Concurrently, space entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk emerged, fueled by these narratives and the burgeoning space industry. This period set the stage for the modern space race driven by private enterprise (14:47, 17:20).

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6. The 'No Planet B' Environmental Movement

Timestamp: 17:20 - 18:01

As Musk and Bezos focused on space colonization, the environmental movement galvanized with the "No Planet B" slogan, emphasizing that space exploration does not substitute addressing Earth's ecological crises. Environmentalists and thinkers like Kim Stanley Robinson argued that neglecting Earth in favor of extraterrestrial projects exacerbates existing problems rather than solving them. This tension between space ambitions and environmental stewardship forms a critical backdrop for muskism (17:20, 18:01).

Notable Quote:
"We can't be thinking that Earth is disposable." – Environmental Advocate (17:20)

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7. Political Entanglement: Trump, Space Force, and SpaceX

Timestamp: 19:13 - 23:51

Jill Lepore examines the intersection of Musk's SpaceX with U.S. politics, particularly under the Trump administration. Initially met with skepticism, Musk gained political favor as Trump redirected NASA's priorities towards lunar missions and the establishment of the Space Force. SpaceX's collaboration with the military, including contracts for missile tracking satellites and weapon delivery rockets, blurred the lines between commercial space exploration and military interests. This alliance underscores muskism's integration into broader political and economic structures (19:13, 23:51).

Notable Quote:
"Space isn't so much the next frontier, but as the next battleground." – Jill Lepore (23:51)

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8. SpaceX's Ascendancy and Societal Costs

Timestamp: 27:23 - 30:19

The narrative shifts to SpaceX's meteoric rise, culminating in significant achievements like the first fully private manned mission to the International Space Station and plans for Mars colonization. However, Lepore juxtaposes these successes with societal issues on Earth, invoking Gil Scott Heron's poem "Whitey on the Moon" to highlight the disparity between astronomical investments and terrestrial suffering. The episode questions the ethical implications of prioritizing space endeavors over addressing urgent human needs, illustrating the moral complexities of muskism (27:23, 30:19).

Notable Quote:
"Millions and millions of dollars are continually sent into outer space while we continue to face the same problems here on the ground." – Gil Scott Heron (30:15)

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9. Reflections and Future Directions

Timestamp: 30:19 - End

In concluding segments, Jill Lepore reflects on the ongoing narrative of escaping to "Planet B" and its ramifications for "Planet A." The episode suggests that while SpaceX and muskism propel humanity towards interplanetary ambitions, they simultaneously divert attention and resources from resolving Earth's crises. This dichotomy invites listeners to ponder the true cost of such grandiose visions and the ethical responsibilities of those who drive them.

Teaser for Next Episode:
"Next time on X Man Muskism here on Earth, and the story of how the man who sold the moon became Iron Man."

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Key Takeaways

• Muskism: A term coined to describe Elon Musk's blend of extreme capitalism and visionary goals inspired by science fiction, aiming to secure humanity's future through technological advancements and space colonization.

• Science Fiction as a Blueprint: Musk's ambitions are deeply rooted in science fiction literature, which shapes his approach to business and space exploration.

• Existential Risks and Capitalism: The fear of human extinction has been harnessed within a capitalist framework to justify massive investments in space as a means of ensuring long-term survival.

• Political Collaboration: SpaceX's growth is intertwined with political agendas, particularly under the Trump administration, merging commercial space endeavors with military objectives.

• Ethical Dilemmas: The focus on interplanetary missions raises critical questions about the prioritization of resources, ethics, and the societal impact of such grand projects.

• Environmental Concerns: The "No Planet B" movement challenges the notion that colonizing space can offset the environmental degradation on Earth, advocating for sustainable practices on our home planet.

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Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps

1. Elon Musk:
   "When I was in university, I thought about what would most affect the future of the world. And the three areas that I came up with were the Internet, sustainable energy, and making life multi planetary."
   05:36

2. Thomas Moynihan:
   "Apocalypse secures a sense of an ending, whereas extinction anticipates the ending of sense."
   09:50

3. Environmental Advocate:
   "We can't be thinking that Earth is disposable."
   17:20

4. Jill Lepore:
   "Space isn't so much the next frontier, but as the next battleground."
   23:51

5. Gil Scott Heron (Referenced):
   "Millions and millions of dollars are continually sent into outer space while we continue to face the same problems here on the ground."
   30:15

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the rich discussions, key insights, and critical analyses presented in Episode 3: "Planet B" of "X Man: The Elon Musk Origin Story." Through structured sections and notable quotations, it provides an engaging overview for listeners and non-listeners alike, shedding light on the multifaceted narrative of Elon Musk's ambitions and their broader implications.

Transcript

[Jill Lepore]

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[Jill Lepore]

Pushkin. You are looking at a live view of the Falcon Heavy in 2018. Elon Musk's company SpaceX launched a rocket from the Kennedy Space center in Florida. Under blue skies streaked with clouds, a giant white rocket attached to two smaller white boosters stood perched on the launch pad.

[Unknown Voice]

All systems are our go for launch.

[Jill Lepore]

A crowd assembled at mission Control, giddy and loud. This was the company's splashiest launch yet of its biggest rocket built for a Mars Crossing orbit. Stacked inside the fairing is Elon's cherry red Tesla Roadster. Then there was the payload described by SpaceX in its live broadcast. And inside of it, a passenger. His name is Starman, but don't worry, he's not human. There was also an arc, a sort of Noah's Ark of an archive on a space proof quartz compact disc. On the ark that's being launched today, the foundation has stored Isaac Asimov's classic sci fi series, the Foundation Trilogy. One objective of this test flight was to put a Tesla Roadster carrying the works of Isaac Asimov into orbit for a billion years.

[Unknown Advertiser]

3, 2, 1, 2.

[Jill Lepore]

Welcome to the Elon Musk origin story. I'm Jill Lepore. I'm a professor at Harvard. I'm a U.S. political historian, and for a long time I've been studying the relationship between technological and political change. I'm fascinated by visions of the future in political discourse, in literature, in science fiction, and even comic books. This series I'm exploring a new kind of capitalism. Call it muskism, extravagant extreme capitalism, extraterrestrial capitalism, where stock prices can be driven by dreams and fantasies that come from science fiction. Last episode, I looked at Musk's early life in South Africa, growing up reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He ended up in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, founding a company called X.com that merged with PayPal. EBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. Musk used that money to start SpaceX. He also started talking about very big plans for the future of humanity.

[Elon Musk]

When I was in university, I thought about what would most affect the future of the world. And the three areas that I came up with were the Internet, sustainable energy, and making life multi planetary.

[Jill Lepore]

Musk began to argue that his plan was to save the human race, including by going to Mars. But why? Future of humanity questions used to belong to religion and philosophy. Under muskism, they belong to engineering and entrepreneurship. How did that happen? This episode of X Men is called Planet B. Strap in to head to Mars, which is where Elon Musk was headed before he took a detour to the White House in 2016, the year Donald Trump was elected president for the first time, Musk spoke to an audience at a SpaceX event about the ship he'd like to take to Mars.

[Elon Musk]

I think maybe the name of the first ship that goes to Mars. My current favorite is Heart of Gold from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I like the fact that it's driven by infinite improbability. I think our ship is also extremely improbable.

[Jill Lepore]

One pretty useful way of understanding Musk's vision for SpaceX is that it's Douglas Adams fan fiction. Or you could make a fair argument that SpaceX's inspiration is comes from the foundation series title. Foundation author Isaac asimov, Encyclopedia Galactica 116th Edition this Encyclopedia Galactica runs through all the foundation series, and if that sounds familiar, that's because the Hitchhiker's Guide is a lampoon of it.

[Douglas Adams]

The Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedic Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom because although it has many omissions, contains much that is apocryphal or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important ways. First, it is slightly cheaper, and second, it has the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on the COVID.

[Jill Lepore]

That Tesla roadster that Musk sent up into space had a copy of Asimov inside, and it also had Don't Panic on its dashboard. Asimov's foundation series revolves around a scholar named Harry Seldon. Born the 11,988th year of the Galactic era died 12,069 Birthplace Helicon, Arcturus Sector Harry Seldon is responsible for the future of humanity. His plan Engineers will save us. Seldon knows that the Galactic Empire will soon collapse, after which the galaxy will endure a dark age. He's got a plan to hide away two sets of experts, one at each end of the galaxy. The two foundations to store the knowledge of civilization. Elon Musk read this story as a kid and later said that the lesson he drew from it was that you should try to take the set of actions that are likely to prolong civilization and minimize the probability of a Dark Age and reduce the length of a Dark Age if there is one Anxiety about the imminent end of civilization. Existential catastrophism is an essential feature of muskism. Humanity, in this understanding of the world, is always at risk of extinction. Entrepreneurs and engineers are trying to save us all. I got to wondering where this idea came from. When did people begin worrying about Human extinction?

[Thomas Moynihan]

That's a good question. So it depends on what you mean by worrying.

[Jill Lepore]

That's Thomas Moynihan, author of the 2020 book X How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction. I called up Moynihan to ask him about the history of the panic. Don't panic about human extinction, which is different from a religious worry about the coming apocalypse.

[Thomas Moynihan]

Apocalypse secures a sense of an ending, whereas extinction anticipates the ending of sense.

[Jill Lepore]

According to Moynihan, people started worrying about human extinction sometime in the 18th century, during the Enlightenment, partly because scientists studying fossils had begun to observe and to document the extinction of other species, like dinosaurs. This fascinated Romantic poets.

[Thomas Moynihan]

Byron himself refers to using steam engines to deflect incoming asteroids and stop them from wiping out humanity.

[Jill Lepore]

Mary Shelley, a decade after she wrote Frankenstein, wrote the Last man, the first novel in English that imagines human extinction by way of a global pandemic. By the end of the 19th century, you get science fiction that imagines a risk coming from other planets, something wriggling.

[Douglas Adams]

Out of the shadow like a gray snake.

[Jill Lepore]

Martians came to Earth in H.G. wells 1898 novel War of the Worlds. But as Moynihan points out, Wells also thought of other planets as a way to avoid human extinction.

[Douglas Adams]

Ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it.

[Thomas Moynihan]

At the end of War of the Worlds, he mentions that humanity might be able to migrate to Venus in the long term, and that would somehow prolong the lifespan of civilization.

[Jill Lepore]

But of course, early science fiction emerged during an era of imperialism. After all, as Cecil Rhodes himself said, I would annex the planets if I could. HG Wells wasn't actually promoting a colony on Venus. He was opposing British colonies on Earth. He began War of the Worlds by talking about British colonial expansion into Tasmania, writing that the Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants in the space of 50 years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit? The line from Wells to Musk is a line of rupture to recycle age of imperialism. Science fiction absent. The criticism of imperialism is to erase history. Moynihan argues that in the middle decades of the 20th century, fears of human extinction got ratcheted up. After Hiroshima and during the Cold War, with its concern about nuclear Armageddon, the danger was an alien invasion. The danger was us. By the 1980s, people concerned about what's come to be called existential risk. Especially people fighting for arms control came up with some fancy calculations to try to win the argument.

[Thomas Moynihan]

We shouldn't be thinking about human extinction as just the death of the 7 billion people that are currently alive. We need to think about it more as the foreclosure of all the future generations of people that could have been, who could have had worthwhile lives.

[Jill Lepore]

This idea really took off this, to me, strange calculation by which our lives, the lives of everyone here on Earth, just don't amount to much compared to the lives of all the future beings who won't live if we don't establish colonies on other planets. Then in the 1990s, Moynihan says a lot of tech people involved in early message boards came together to really panic about a long list of existential risks.

[Thomas Moynihan]

Asteroid or comet impacts, super volcanic eruptions, stellar explosions, nuclear war, climate degradation. And then one that also gets a lot of attention as well is artificial intelligence.

[Jill Lepore]

At the time, this list was growing on tech message boards. Elon Musk was in college and then in Silicon Valley developing his sense of mission. A few years back, Bernie Sanders tweeted, we are in a moment in history where two guys, Elon Mus and Jeff Bezos, own more wealth than the bottom 40% of people in this country. Musk tweeted back, I am accumulating resources to help make life interplanetary and extend the light of consciousness to the stars. Not everyone thinks Musk and Bezos are heroically saving humanity from extinction. My question is, why do they think they're doing that? Jeff Bezos was born in New Mexico, and in 1964, both he and Elon Musk grew up on stories about the Apollo 11 moon landing. The US ended its moon program in 1972. Bezos, a star Trek fan, always wanted to go back to the moon. Musk tells a story about how, as a kid, he went to the NASA website to look up the schedule for going to Mars and was disappointed to find there wasn't one. In 1964, NASA had launched the Mariner 4 probe, the first spacecraft to fly by Mars.

[Douglas Adams]

The great question is, what will Mariner reveal? Of course, the possibility of life on Mars has been debated for many years. Faint lines seen on the surface have led to the idea that these were canals dug by the Martians. But I don't think anybody goes that far. These.

[Jill Lepore]

The probe sent back 21 photographs unveiled at the White House before Lyndon Johnson. But the photographs revealed a barren, dusty wasteland, all but crushing any hope. As Johnson said that there was life on Mars.

[Douglas Adams]

It may be. It may just be that life as we know it, with its humanity, is more unique than many have thought.

[Jill Lepore]

That view of Mars started to change in the 1990s, which marked a convergence. Tech types had become consumed with the possibility of human extinction. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk were starting to make millions, even billions of dollars. And writers and scientists had begun to imagine ways Mars could be made habitable. The science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson published the Mars Trilogy, in which scientists from Earth have terraformed Mars. And in 1998, an aerospace engineer named Robert Zubrin published a book called the Case for Mars. There's three reasons why Mars should be the goal of our space program. And in short, it's because Mars is where the science is, it's where the challenge is, and it's where the future. Bezos founded his space company, Blue Origin, in the year 2000. Musk started SpaceX two years later. In the two and a half decades since, despite painful setbacks, SpaceX has been an engineering wonder, a juggernaut revitalizing space exploration. But even as the richest men on this planet were thinking about traveling to other planets, more and more Earthlings were worried about life here on earth. 5 million students around the world took to the streets in a climate strike. Last Friday, students flooded the streets with a clear message. There is no Planet B. While Musk and Bezos were building rockets. There is no Planet B became the motto of the environmental movement. A way for people to say that space exploration not only fails to address the risk of human extinction, but but is instead part of the problem. Even Kim Stanley Robinson took this line.

[Unknown Advertiser]

I still speak positively about us going to Mars and even perhaps someday terraforming Mars, but it's a project for like the year 3000 AD. What I feel I have to say now is to remind people there is no Planet B. It's not simple, it's not fast, it isn't going to happen anytime soon. And so we can't be thinking that Earth is disposable.

[Jill Lepore]

About 20 years ago, Elon Musk began to change the way he talked about going to Mars. Have we screwed it up so badly here on this planet that our only hope is to build a new civilization out there?

[Elon Musk]

No, not at all. Actually, I'm quite optimistic about the future of humanity on Earth.

[Jill Lepore]

So what is the benefit to humanity.

[Elon Musk]

Then, to inhabit Mars? Well, I think if you consider two paths, one where we're forever confined to Earth and the other where we are a space Frank Civilization out exploring the stars. I think the latter is far more exciting.

[Jill Lepore]

SpaceX is about taking science fiction stories and turning them into fact. But what if SpaceX is actually fulfilling the vision of dystopian science fiction by way of muskism, not only as extraterrestrial capitalism, but as a new political order? Isaac Asimov's foundation series, first appearance in 1951. But a more prophetic science fiction story about money and politics and the future of humanity came out in 1952.

[Douglas Adams]

The Space Merchants, Frederick Poles and C.M. kornbluth's Modern Classic about the future. When the wizards of high pressure salesmanship take over.

[Jill Lepore]

The Space Merchants is dystopian science fiction later made into a radio drama. The story opens on a blighted, depleted, overcrowded Earth at a board meeting of an advertising agency called Fowler Shocken Associates.

[Douglas Adams]

Gentlemen, good morning. Good morning, Mr. Shocken. Now sit down, sit down. I'm going to stand for a moment. I've just come back on the moon rocket, as you know. Want to stretch my legs. How is our project on the moon, Mr. Shotgun? Gentlemen, I'm proud and I'm humble when I say it's successful. The mining ventures are bringing the people here on Earth. Many of the metals our forefathers exhausted long ago. The colonists seem quite untouched by the Kanzi revolutionists. Only six instances of Khansi sabotage in.

[Jill Lepore]

The past week on this desperate, dying Earth. Fowler Schocken is worried about Khansi's conservationists, or what we'd call environmentalists.

[Douglas Adams]

Gentlemen, on my trip back from the moon I began to wonder, are we getting soft? But now I've decided Fowler Shock and Associates is not soft. That it's ready to meet a challenge greater than our development of the moon. The greatest challenge the world of advertising and promotion has ever met. The colonizing of Venus.

[Jill Lepore]

The space Merchants wasn't the first version of this dystopian vision. In a story from 1901 with the excellent title to Mars with Tesla, that is with Nikola Tesla, a guy advertising a rocket trip to Mars turns out to be a con man In 2022, in Fowler Shockin fashion, SpaceX was involved in the first fully private, entirely for profit mission to the International Space station. It carried three space tourists paying $55 million each for a 17 day trip. The Washington Post has reported that SpaceX might be involved in a project to build the first hotel in space. Next stop, the Red Planet. Blast back to the past, to the U.S. presidential election year of 2012. During that year's contest for the Republican nomination Moderates like Mitt Romney said a plan to go to the moon was crazy.

[Unknown Voice]

I spent 25 years in business. If I had a business executive come to me and say they wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, I'd say you're fired. The idea that corporate America wants to go off to the moon and build a colony there, it may be a big idea, but it's not a good idea.

[Jill Lepore]

But far right Republicans like Newt Gingrich endorse this idea.

[Donald Trump]

I'll tell you, I do not want to be the country having gotten to the moon first, turned around and said, it doesn't really matter. Let the Chinese dominate space. What do we care?

[Jill Lepore]

During the US presidential election year of 2016, Gingrich was one of Trump's closest advisors. Then, in the weeks between Trump's election and his inauguration, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos both went to see him in Trump Tower. In 2017, after Trump took office, people started talking about moon fever. As one commentator put it, Trump wanted to make the moon American again. Americans, though, weren't much behind this project. A poll found that 63% of Americans wanted NASA to focus instead on climate research. Only 13% favored another trip to the Moon. But this didn't stop Trump.

[Donald Trump]

Thank you very much, Vice President Pence, for helping. Where's our Vice president? Great job. To restore American leadership in space, Trump.

[Jill Lepore]

Directed NASA to alter its schedule and make a priority of sending Americans to the moon.

[Donald Trump]

Our journey into space will not only make us stronger and more prosperous, but will unite us behind grand ambitions and bring us all closer together. Wouldn't that be nice? Can you believe that space is going to do that?

[Jill Lepore]

At the end of 2017, at the White House, Trump made a formal announcement of a new destination.

[Donald Trump]

This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars and perhaps someday to many worlds beyond.

[Jill Lepore]

It wasn't only about science, he said.

[Donald Trump]

Space has so much to do with so many other applications, including a military application.

[Jill Lepore]

What he meant by that became clear a year and a half later.

[Donald Trump]

We're gathered here in the Rose Garden to establish the United States Space Command. It's a big deal. Spacecom will soon be followed, very importantly, by the establishment of the United States Space Force. As the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces.

[Jill Lepore]

Space isn't so much the next frontier, but as the next battleground. And Elon Musk and his dream of a multi planetary civilization that is being funded by American taxpayers. SpaceX and Space Force are two sides of the same Bitcoin. SpaceX's military projects have included manufacturing missile tracking satellites and new rockets for Space Force, and developing a rocket capable of delivering weapons anywhere in the world. By 2024, SpaceX had received nearly $20 billion in government contracts. Trump vowed to increase that funding. We approached SpaceX for a response, but at the time of recording we hadn't received a reply. There is a politics of space. Lately it looks less like the politics of Star Trek, a JFK style new frontier of exciting science and good government. Then like the politics of Star wars, of swaggering generals and imperial death Stars. There's also something of a party politics of space, and in the US it's been generally Republican and conservative. This was true long before Musk became a Trump supporter and the GOP's most generous donor in the Senate. The race to space was for a long time most fiercely endorsed by the Texas senator and one time presidential aspirant Ted Cruz. No longer is space just an uninhabited void or a scientific novelty. That's Cruise in 2019, chairing a hearing on the emerging space environment. Cruise grew up reading the science fiction of Robert Heinlein, a noted libertarian and author of the man who Sold the Moon. Heinlein's estate awards the Heinlein Prize for space commercialization. Both Musk and Bezos have won it. By some estimates, the space sector will grow to nearly $3 trillion in value in the next three decades alone. It is also my belief that the world's first trillionaire will be made in space. One purpose of Space Force is to protect the space merchants. Bernie Sanders wasn't the only person on the left to notice the ironies here, the staggering inequalities in 2019. Trevor Noah, the mixed race South African who hosts the Daily show on Comedy Central in the US Pictured Elon Musk bringing colonists to Mars. You gotta admit, it would've been kinda funny if Elon Musk waited until they landed on Mars to be like, oh, I forgot to mention, you are my space slaves. Now get to work building my base. Because then you realize all those rich white people would be slaving away on the Martian fields. They'll be singing their old Caucasian spirituals. Trevor Noah tied race to space. But they got tied together again in 2020 after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on May 25, a Monday. Protests began in Minneapolis that night. By Wednesday, they'd begun to spread across the country. On Thursday, the governor of Minnesota called in the National Guard. On Friday, Trump delivered an ultimatum, tweeting, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. That night, as protesters gathered near the White House, the Secret Service rushed the President to an underground bunker. The next day, May 30, 2020, Trump boarded Air Force One. But where to?

[Unknown Voice]

And now it's my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you the man whose vision and and relentless leadership brought us to this historic day, the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump.

[Jill Lepore]

Trump hadn't flown to Minneapolis to talk to protesters. He'd flown to Florida to the Kennedy Space center to watch the long scheduled launch of SpaceX's first manned mission. The first time a commercial space corporation carried people into space. Ignition. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon.

[Unknown Advertiser]

Go NASA, go SpaceX. Godspeed, Bob, and die.

[Jill Lepore]

It was a weird freak of timing, this history making moment nearly four years ago. The George Floyd protests and SpaceX's triumphant launch.

[Donald Trump]

Big day is a big day.

[Jill Lepore]

It was an unfortunate freak of timing. Trump took to the stage to his trademark walk on Mutual at the Space center and started out talking about the protests.

[Donald Trump]

My administration will always stand against violence, mayhem and disorder.

[Jill Lepore]

It was a hard turn to get to the rocket, but Trump tied the two together. He said, race sows division. Space brings unity.

[Donald Trump]

Moments ago, as we witnessed the launch of two great American astronauts into space, we were filled with the sense of pride and unity that brings us together as Americans.

[Jill Lepore]

For Trump, SpaceX meant America first. Then he introduced an American entrepreneur.

[Donald Trump]

He's a little different than a lot of other people. He liked rockets. Elon Musk. Congratulations. Congratulations, Elon.

[Jill Lepore]

That's Trump basking in Musk's space glow. Since then, SpaceX has created the largest and most powerful spacecraft ever built. It's become the world leader in space exploration. And Trump, after his defeat in 2020 and his failed attempt to overturn the election, has come back to power too. Winning reelection decisively this time with Musk at his side. His own Rocket Man. SpaceX's engineering accomplishments are incredible. But what about the costs? What about the risks? Not the existential ones, but the ordinary ones. Watching the SpaceX launch that day, almost five years ago now, all I could think about was a poem by Gil Scott Heron from 1970 about the Apollo mission. It's called Whitey on the Moon.

[Unknown Advertiser]

One such poem concerning the fact that millions and millions of dollars are continually sent into outer space while we continue.

[Douglas Adams]

To face the same problems here on the ground.

[Jill Lepore]

Scott Heron was writing about everyone left behind, the poor, the needy and their suffering. His sister bit by a rat getting sicker and sicker and him with no money to pay the doctor's bill while Whitey's on the moon. I listened to that poem that day while Trump and Musk watched that launch. It's still ringing in my ears all these years later as Trump and Musk dismantle usaid, ending American aid programs around the world while ratcheting up the Mars program. People have been trying to escape to Planet B for a long time, and that doesn't make it the right thing for Planet A. Next time on X Man Muskism here on Earth, and the story of how the man who sold the moon became Iron Man. This is an iHeart podcast.