The night was shrouded in bright lights at the launch site of the Vandenberg Air Force Base.

You can view a viewing hall at the launch site hundreds of meters away. Just like last year, there are still many guests this time. In addition to Simon and SpaceX team, the difference is that this time it is mainly representatives of potential customer services from all parties, including NASA.

Gwen Shortville, who was also led by Simon, was a very capable manager. Last year, Merlin's engine completed testing, and until this time before the Falcon One launch, in addition to the last $1 billion engine contract, Shortville successfully signed 27 commercial launch contracts with many potential customers including NASA.

Just wait for Falcon One to succeed.

However, to be honest, everyone does not have much expectations for the first launch of Falcon 1. In history, there are no rockets that can succeed with the first launch. There are, but few, more of them are tested again and again and finally mature.

Simon happened to talk about this while chatting with Schottville before the launch.

Simon hopes the first launch will fail.

This is not pretentious.

Simon is very recognized by the achievements made by the SpaceX team in the past few years. However, for the advanced aerospace industry, only by experiencing failure can we learn lessons and accumulate experience. Moreover, because of the high cost of aerospace engineering, even if it is not spent on your own money, a failure is enough to make SpaceX engineers profound for several years.

Gwen Shortville was rarely dissatisfied with his boss pouring cold water before the Rockets launched, and said another thing.

It is also a private rocket company in the United States.

The Orbital Science Company, founded in 1982, entered the rocket launch business in 1987. In three years, it developed its first operating rocket "Ma Constellation". It was launched in 1990, and it was a success.

Gwen Shortville firmly believes that his team is better and cannot be inferior to Orbital Sciences.

Simon was a little moved when he heard this.

Spending your own money is indeed different from spending the country.

I also asked a few more questions about the current situation of orbital science companies, and then I no longer paid attention to it. Orbital science companies are now basically incorporated by NASA. Moreover, the cost of rocket launches is not much lower than that of the mainstream. In addition, due to their own physical measurement, they are not very competitive and can only carry out some small commercial launches.

Because Simon determined the direction for SpaceX in advance, the Falcon series rockets are cost-effective enough to beat all mainstream operating rockets at present, which is an advantage that no other space launching company can match.

When a mechanical and clear countdown sounded in the observation hall, Simon stopped discussing with Schottville beside him, looked at the glass window, and finally couldn't help asking the senior female manager beside him: "Gwen, we sit here. If we explode directly, there will be no danger, right?"

The result is a roll of eyes.

“…five, four, three, two, one, ignite!”

The bright firelight accompanied by smoke and the roar that followed, Falcon One on the launch site seemed to slowly soar into the air, gradually accelerating, and soon disappeared from Simon's vision with a long trail. Some guests couldn't help but approach the glass window and continued to look after it. Simon sat without moving, but turned to a large screen in the hall.

Above is a picture sent back by the Falcon 1 rocket itself with a camera.

The resolution is not high, but it is enough for both experts and laymen to roughly judge the flight status of a rocket.

Even though he had just chatted with Shortville, Simon said that he hoped that the first launch would fail, but when things really came to an end, Xinxian couldn't help but tighten a little, and his emotions were a little entangled. Occasionally, he glanced at the side. The senior executive who was dressed meticulously today clenched his fists unknowingly.

While waiting, the picture on the projector trembled.

Simon glanced at the time displayed in the lower right corner of the big screen, 3 minutes and 27 seconds.

A sound came from the hall again.

"The first-stage rocket is separated."

At this time, everyone looked at the projection screen. When the trembling and intermittent picture became clear again, applause spontaneously rang out in the hall.

Simon also raised his hand and applauded.

It is roughly known that the separation of the first and second-class rockets is the most prone to failure. The separation of the first-stage arrow body and the successful ignition of the second-stage arrow body will be followed by the orbital problem.

Time continues to pass minute by minute.

Eight minutes later, the earth's outline began to appear on the projection screen, and everyone held their breath and concentrated on the observation hall.

At 8 minutes and 27 seconds, the secondary engine was turned off.

Then, the star arrows separated.

Of course, this rocket does not carry satellites, but a Tinkobaier iBerry-10 Ultra mobile phone model, but is not a simple plastic model, but has communication and photography functions. Once officially entered orbit, pictures can be returned and used as publicity.

8 minutes and 35 seconds.

It seemed that after some brief pause, a sound came from the hall again, and the female voice that had been calm before was obviously a bit high: "The Falcon 1 rocket was successfully launched and the target officially entered orbit."

"yeah!"

Before Simon could react, Gwen Shortville beside him had already made an excited sound, and his small fist that had been on his knee was still raised, and it fell down and hit Simon's knee.

This was obviously intentional.

Before Simon could protest, Schotwell had already come over, hugged his boss, then rushed up, and rushed towards whoever came over casually.

There were also cheers in the hall.

Simon also saw two big men crying with joy when they saw each other.

At the same time, the sound of champagne opening was heard, and the foam rushed directly into Simon's neck.

Well, this is obviously intentional.

Instead of turning around to find the culprit, Simon glanced at the A girl who was still sitting with her boss beside her: "Or, let's hug her too."

Girl A smiled and stuck it over. It was fragrant and soft, much better than a tomboy who was playing Rockets just now.

Really feeling Simon's cell phone started to remember.

Girl C calls from Los Angeles.

There has been news there, and the iBerry model has been sent back to the first stop photo. Girl C said that it has launched the custom iBerry phone in Simon's hand. At the same time, Tinkobaier has begun to prepare a press release and take advantage of this opportunity to further promote the iBerry series.

I just hung up the C phone number, and Janet's call came in from Los Angeles.

The woman knew Simon's intention to do these things, so she also attached great importance to SpaceX's first launch. Just like the C girl just now, if she hadn't had all kinds of things at hand, she would definitely come here today.

After answering several calls in a row, Simon pulled Girl A and also joined the lively celebration around him. It was not until one o'clock in the morning that everyone took Simon's helicopter to leave Vandenberg Air Force Base and returned to Los Angeles.

Early the next morning, mainstream media was filled with news of the successful launch of Falcon 1.

Simon was originally not very interested in such a big fanfare publicity, but since he was successful in one go, big fanfare publicity can be regarded as an honor to the SpaceX team, and of course there are marketing requirements, after all, it is a commercial company after all.

However, this time it is not as good as before, promoting the first private fund manufacturing.

Musk was indeed completely alone, while the new SpaceX and the new Falcon One have cooperation in many aspects.

Of course, Simon would not be self-deprecating because the strategy he formulated at the beginning was not independent research and development, but integration, and to integrate the technical achievements of hundreds of billions of dollars of research and development in the past decades. This is actually a kind of resource saving. In order to achieve this goal, Simon even used various gray means.

Only when the integration is completed will the next step of research and development.

Now, even if SpaceX's first rocket was launched successfully, there is actually still a long way to go before the integration stage required by Simon. Simon feels that the integration stage is truly completed, at least it should end with another moon landing plan.

Therefore, during the hot media discussion, while the SpaceX high-level meeting on the next day was affirmed, Simon's request was to continue working hard.

The success of the first launch is enough to prove the stability of Falcon One. Next, while it can perform commercial launches, it is the research and development of recyclable rockets and heavy rockets.

The latter is more important to Simon.

Because we have to move forward and move forward, instead of stopping and making money.

However, Simon was not stingy at all for the reward he deserved.

Last year, Merlin One passed the test and won a huge order. Simon gave a bonus of $15 million at one time. This time, the same was true. The same 15 million check was scattered.

Not only that, Simon also launched another plan to significantly increase the salary of SpaceX employees.

Previously, SpaceX's general salary was not very high, only about 20% to 30% higher than the average salary of other institutions in the industry. This time, Simon directly set SpaceX's starting salary to $100,000.

In 1997 just now, the average annual income of Americans was $27,000, and the median income of more accurate income was only $19,000, which is far less than many people who yearn for the United States to make this paradise imagined. Simon set SpaceX's annual salary to $100,000, which is equivalent to the level of ordinary corporate executives in the United States. Moreover, SpaceX does not lack bonuses and equity rewards that corporate executives have.

Not only that, the key is the "starting salary".

It means that as long as you can successfully join SpaceX, the first-class people will be able to get an annual salary of $100,000. After the successful launch of Falcon 1, Gwen Shortville took advantage of the popularity of the media and released recruitment inspiration worldwide through his Facebook homepage. As for the old employees who have worked at SpaceX for several years, after this big increase, the annual salary is generally higher, and 150,000 or even 200,000 US dollars is rare.

This is not Simon's whim.

If you want a horse to run, you have to eat grass for the horse. This is the simplest truth.

Simon started thinking about it very early.

If you want to succeed in the 3G plan, you will talk to others about your ideals, but if you only talk about your ideals, you are a hooligan.

It is still the most reliable to talk about money.

More than ten or twenty years later, there is a common phenomenon between the East and the West. The top talents and the smartest minds either go into the financial circle represented by Wall Street, develop various financial products that make ordinary people dizzy, and cut leeks. Or they flock to world-class top technology companies such as FANNG. They are not studying the future, but how to place advertisements more accurately, and if they squeeze deliverymen to the extreme, they are like this.

As a result, there are few people who are interested in various basic sciences that are crucial to human development.

Ultimately, it's a matter of money.

Because the financial circle and the online circle are more profitable, they will naturally attract more elites.

As for basic mathematics, physics, chemistry and other fields, even if you reach the Nobel Prize level, the Nobel Prize prize is not as good as the year-end bonus of senior executives of some financial technology companies.

Of course no one did it.

Simon is an elite, believing that human progress is the result of the guidance of a few top elites.

However, the few here, as they are about to enter the 21st century, are no longer the kind of Solvey Conference at the beginning of this century. A group of top scientists in a photo almost changed the future of mankind.

In the new era, research in various basic fields is quite a huge project, just like sorting the human genome, like the construction of a particle collider that lasts dozens or hundreds of kilometers. In this way, not only does it require the pioneering and most advanced elites like Einstein and Madame Curie to guide, but also requires the participation of a large number of relatively ordinary elites.

Compared with ordinary elites, they may have a far more mind than ordinary people, but they are still humans.

Simon could not have asked these people to cut off their emotions and desires and pursue human lofty ideals. Since they cannot talk about ideals, talking about money is of course the most reliable.

So, SpaceX's salary increase is just the beginning.

Next, Simon will adopt a high-tech strategy in all aspects of the 3G plan, with a $100,000 USD, which may be a lifelong goal for most workers, but as long as they can enter the 3G plan sequence of Westeros system, this will only be the beginning.

1 million, 10 million, or even 100 million US dollars.

As long as he has the corresponding value, Simon will not be stingy.

The Falcon 1 start on April 16 was not only successful, but the media hustle and bustle caused by the media lasted for a week. SpaceX also released the launch video of the rocket on YouTube the next day. At the same time, the iBerry-10 Ultra phone sent into space by Falcon 1 has once again become the focus of hot media discussion.

A launch of just $6 million will have a marketing effect for Tinkobaier's iBerry series that is no less than $60 million in advertising.

After paying the SpaceX team a sum of funds, Tinkobaier directly booked the marketing bundle for the next launch. Of course, Tinkobaier will not launch the mobile phone model again. However, Tinkobaier provides some detailed technical support, such as the Falcon One portable camera this time, which actually comes from Tinkobaier's laboratory, and will definitely cooperate next time.

Simon is not concerned about Tinkobaier, and SpaceX, with the successful launch of Falcon 1,000,000,000,000,000, even if the cost of Tinkobaier is simply mined, it still attracts a large number of cooperation applications, and Simon has to suppress it.
Chapter completed!