That year, Elon Musk and I talked about his "space dream."

Author | Zhang Peng

【Editor's note】On June 12th, local time, the most anticipated and largest IPO in human business history—Elon Musk's SpaceX—finally successfully landed on NASDAQ. After including businesses like X, xAI, and Starlink, SpaceX not only raised $75 billion, but the opening surged dramatically, pushing the company's market value to one point two trillion dollars at one point.

SpaceX's market value, like Musk's rockets, has experienced huge ups and downs, ultimately soaring to the sky.

Since founding SpaceX in 2002, over 24 years, Musk and his space dreams have always been questioned, both in the past and now. But this company and its founder, like in doubt, continue to advance toward the goal of "interplanetary species."

The following article was written by GeekPark founder & President Zhang Peng six years ago, when the Falcon 9 rocket successfully sent two astronauts aboard the Dragon spacecraft into the planned orbit. From a tech media and first-person perspective, it analyzes the lesser-known side behind the success of Silicon Valley's Iron Man and SpaceX.

In our latest podcast episode, GeekPark founder Zhang Peng further recounts the story of Musk's first visit to China in 2014, where the two had a lively chat about commercial spaceflight. Space industry investor Zhai Guanglong also provides an in-depth analysis of the impact and opportunities brought by space computing power to the entire tech industry. Scan the QR code to listen.

At 3:22 AM Beijing time on May 31, under the global online watch, the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle standing at the launch pad for days finally did not disappoint, successfully lifting off, with the Dragon spacecraft carrying two astronauts smoothly entering the planned orbit.

This is the first commercial crewed spacecraft in human history, marking the beginning of human commercial spaceflight. For Elon Musk, the seemingly crazy plan to colonize Mars has taken a solid step forward again.

Over the past six years, I have been fortunate to have some exchanges with Musk. In 2014, I invited him to make his first public appearance in China at GeekPark’s conference; in 2015, I led a group of domestic entrepreneurs to visit him in Silicon Valley (Yiming Zhang was among them); in 2016, I was invited to his launch event in Beijing, and I even had the chance to ask him a question.

I am indeed a hardcore space enthusiast. I remember in 2017, I specially shot a congratulatory video with over a thousand GeekPark fans at the Innovation Conference and sent it to him, as a tribute to SpaceX’s breakthrough progress.

Although my contact was limited, it still gave me a chance to better understand the inner world of this "Iron Man" and his different way of thinking. Today, I share what I recorded after in-depth exchanges with Elon Musk when he attended GeekPark six years ago.

After reading this article, perhaps you can better understand what kind of person Musk is. When everyone is amazed by SpaceX’s greatness, you will find that all Musk’s differences have traces from six years ago.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch

"When 500 light-years away!" When Elon Musk and I almost said this sentence simultaneously, we instantly made each other laugh. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I realized that probably few people in the room truly cared about that number.

That 500 light-years refers to the nearest exoplanet discovered by the Kepler space telescope—"Kepler 186f"—which is closest in size and environment to Earth. During a dinner, Professor Yaqin Zhang was beside me discussing with Elon Musk when humans might land on Mars in the future, and casually mentioned that "NASA recently found a twin Earth about 600 light-years away." Musk responded faster than me, almost without hesitation, correcting: "Hmm, it’s 500 light-years."

This news from NASA was very recent, but Elon Musk had already taken it as "common knowledge" in his mind. That moment was also one of the brightest in his eyes on his first public appearance in China.

This cutting-edge tech innovator arrived in Beijing by private jet in the morning, then hurried to Tesla’s Beijing office, visited GeekPark’s "Singularity Conference," participated in a two-and-a-half-hour tough interview with CCTV, then moved on to business meetings at 6:30 PM, and finally attended GeekPark’s welcome dinner. When I saw him, he still looked energetic, which made me admire this double CEO of Tesla and SpaceX—truly a person with extraordinary energy.

However, Elon Musk is not a socialite or a master of hype. As he said, he is more like a "bit crazy engineer." Don’t expect him to please or cater to others like those familiar with public sentiment and eloquence. When asked questions he’s uninterested in or too nonsensical to answer, he becomes a person with no linguistic highlights, even turning "closed" on the interaction interface. But if you ask the right questions, you can see the excitement in his eyes and even in his body language.

Musk is very aware that sometimes he needs to repeat the same things to different people, sometimes he will "bend down" to match different perspectives and expectations. So if you meet him for the first time, even if you ask questions that are easy to find through search engines and he has answered many times, he will patiently repeat himself.

This is not because he is naturally considerate or cares about your face, nor is it a deliberate concession for his business interests. Behind it is an extremely strong self-awareness—he believes most people have not yet seen the right direction and need guidance, so he doesn’t mind giving "lost" people some pointers.

Of course, if you stubbornly refuse to see the truth or are completely lost, he will not hesitate to give you an extremely cold look, or even simply stand up and leave.

The following exchanges took place during the warm-up, waiting, and departure at GeekPark’s Singularity Conference, as well as private conversations sitting beside him during the dinner, and questions from other guests helping with translation. Since I mostly seized moments, the questions are not very coherent or systematic, and I may have some inaccuracies based on memory. But I believe everyone can still get a sense of this legendary geek’s inner thoughts.

My exchange with Elon Musk at the 2014 GeekPark Singularity Conference

Zhang Peng: Why did you say back then that Tesla might fail, but you still insisted on doing it?

Elon Musk: I think someone has to push to think about problems with a new mindset framework. I expected and believed that a new wave of electric vehicles could grow within the traditional auto industry, but I found they couldn’t do it. So I believed I needed to use Tesla to create a new thinking framework to tell the industry that there are different ways. The success of this is my luck, but what I really hope to achieve is an industry change. Now we are actually licensing our technology to other automakers. I don’t want to replace them; I just want them to follow the right path.

Zhang Peng: Why do you insist on building solar supercharging stations?

Elon Musk: Cost is the most important factor. Especially in markets like China, reducing the energy consumption involved in converting coal to electricity is also very meaningful. But he recently joked in California that he thought was cool—if a doomsday scenario in movies happens, you can still keep driving a Tesla because gasoline will run out when mined, but solar-powered superchargers can last a long time (though he was joking, I genuinely think this logic is more in line with his style).

Zhang Peng: Today you didn’t mention that Tesla Model S’s biggest advantage over traditional cars is its ability to be systemically upgraded remotely, making it increasingly better. This is a feature we really like, right?

Elon Musk: I don’t like to mention details because I think Tesla’s cars are a systemic innovation, not just a selling point based on one feature. But you can indeed upgrade and update your car via wireless network at any time, making it a better and more tailored transportation tool. I believe that all the details related to driving and handling that we see today or will see soon can be optimized and solved faster with such mechanisms.

Zhang Peng: But with your "cloud + end" layout, are you worried about future cloud security issues?

Elon Musk: You’re talking about only the theoretical possibility, but so far no one has succeeded, not a single example. And we have long had preventive measures and conducted many tests without finding any potential vulnerabilities. Honestly, I don’t understand why you think someone would do that.

(Musk is about to get a scowl… From my understanding, Elon’s attitude towards battery safety issues is similar—he considers the small probability of an incident to influence the overall progress, and thinks it’s a malicious and unconstructive argument. This has always been his style. His aggressive approach to Tesla’s autonomous driving has been controversial in the auto industry. For this launch, the Dragon spacecraft initially planned to use the Falcon 9’s rocket-controlled recovery method, but NASA strongly disagreed, considering the risk too high. Musk finally compromised and reverted to ocean splashdown recovery, but internally, he might not truly agree.)

Zhang Peng: Why do you want to be CEO of two companies?

Elon Musk: I actually don’t want to be a CEO. What I truly yearn for is to be an engineer who can design and realize products according to my ideas. I’ve tried to find CEOs to run companies twice, but I found it doesn’t work. I realize that if I don’t participate personally, many things will go wrong. But clearly, if you want to do something only you believe in, it’s very hard to find strangers to help you realize it.

Zhang Peng: Why are you so persistent in doing high-risk things like SpaceX?

Elon Musk: I loved science fiction novels as a kid. I’ve always thought exploring space is extremely interesting and meaningful. I’m not doing rockets because I want to go to space myself; that’s easy to do (so domineering!). But I think if ordinary people can’t get into space, humanity will forever be confined to Earth, unable to explore the universe, and unable to truly become a multi-planet civilization. We must believe this is the right direction, because if we can’t do that, human civilization will be fragile.

We need to significantly reduce the cost of space entry, and the real way to promote cost reduction is not waiting for sci-fi technologies to fall from the sky, but lowering costs through reusable rockets based on mature rocket technology. I believe this cost reduction should be at least 100 times. Don’t you think this is worth doing?

Zhang Peng: You developed SpaceX to lead humanity into space, and you said creating Tesla was to get everyone to use electric cars, not to dominate an industry. But both faced failures and cost you everything. Many people probably can’t understand your ideas.

Elon Musk: That’s why I said these things are hard for others to do for me; I can only do them myself. I’ve said I might not succeed, but someone has to step up and start acting.

Zhang Peng: Have you ever thought about running for office? If you became president, wouldn’t that help promote your environmental and space exploration ideals?

Elon Musk: I never thought about that. I don’t think I would do it. What I can promote is pushing a good direction through products and technology, not through politics and laws to change the world into what I want. For example, Tesla’s cars—I want my users to choose them not just because choosing electric vehicles is responsible for the future, but because they are truly good products. That’s why they choose it. I don’t think being president can solve this problem; I’m more suitable as an engineer and designer.

Zhang Peng: You managed to persuade NASA and the US government to allow you to do rocket business. How did you do it?

Elon Musk: I earned their trust step by step. I did research with my own money that they wouldn’t do. Then, seeing that I spent so much money and was so serious and dedicated, and that I had results, they gave me opportunities to try further. I think that’s a normal process. Convincing others isn’t mainly about lobbying, but about truly believing in what you do and reaching a critical point where hope can be seen.

Zhang Peng: Why has NASA and so many experts and resources failed to lower launch costs, but SpaceX has succeeded?

Elon Musk: Hmm, I think the real reason NASA can’t do it is precisely because they have too many resources.

Zhang Peng: What do you think of the recent companies offering suborbital tourism flights?

Elon Musk: Cut! (This is just a voiceover; in reality, he shrugged, shook his head, and refused to answer this question. The only suitable Chinese description is "cut" here. He clearly had no interest in such leisure-oriented goals, because they don’t align with his larger goal of creating multi-planet civilizations for humanity.)

【Postscript】

After reading this article, let’s explore the significance of the successful launch of SpaceX’s crewed spacecraft.

In my view, this is not just a simple commercial rocket launch; it represents that commercial spaceflight is maturing and capable of undertaking "crown jewel" missions like crewed missions.

Since humans entered the space age in the 1950s, the starting point was driven by intergovernmental competition. After the US won the moon landing race, scientific and exploratory space missions maintained steady output, but they were still government projects. Although space technology continued to develop, even today, moon landings remain humanity’s highest space achievement.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin standing beside the American flag on the moon during Apollo 11—the first human moon landing

The significance of commercial spaceflight lies in making space and cosmic exploration no longer government-funded projects, but industries that can introduce more wisdom and capital, creating a positive value cycle. This story has long played out in aviation, communications, and computing fields.

Only then can the paradox Musk mentioned earlier—"progress is hindered by too many resources"—be broken. Because the essence of business is efficiency and progress, which must be achieved through innovation, standardization, and scale.

Commercial spaceflight will truly open the era of space for all humanity, and can even be seen as the starting point of a new chapter where humans move from touching space to actively building a multi-planet civilization. Business, even more than curiosity, has the power and ultimately the "hormone" to support humanity’s giant leap forward.

Six years ago, I asked Musk whether I could see affordable space travel for ordinary people in my lifetime. He was very certain: "We will definitely make it."

But it will be a tough process. Before this successful launch, SpaceX’s early-stage research starship rocket experienced explosions during testing, with the goal of transporting 100 people at a time. If the successful Falcon 9 and Dragon combination is a "small transport boat" to space, Musk’s mind is clearly already planning the real "ferry."

He hopes that by 2050, when he is 80, humanity can have a million people living on Mars. This seemingly crazy idea today, he clearly has a detailed roadmap and timetable for.

The two astronauts on this launch, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, are preparing for launch.

I believe Musk will not be the only key figure to open the "true space age" for humanity. He is a "breaker" rider, rushing ahead to confront the greatest resistance, but also inspiring more people to improve the race’s performance.

More capital and intelligent people will join this industry, and China’s new generation of space explorers also have the opportunity to become the driving force for human progress.

Hopefully, the "last space trip of a lifetime" dream many people hold can come true sooner because of commercial spaceflight.

Good luck to Musk!

Good luck to all space explorers!

And good luck to human civilization!