In 2012, Mr. Hong, who was cooking, received a transoceanic call from the United States. "Do you want to work on the world's first rocket factory?" On the other end of the line, a man claiming to be Space X asked.
At that time, Elon Musk had not yet become a world-famous rich man, and Space X was just getting started, and with the recommendation of Stanford alumni, Space X extended an olive branch to Hong Lide.
Hong Lide
"As a mechanical engineering graduate engineer, when I knew I had the opportunity to participate in rocket engineering, I believe that no engineer could turn down the opportunity." As a result, Hong Lide refused another job offer sent by a more famous company in the world at that time to Tokyo, Japan, and resolutely got on a plane to the United States, and Hong Lide, who was sitting on that transoceanic flight, did not expect that the boss of his close partner for the next 7 years was Elon Musk, the world's most famous and richest technology entrepreneur. He later became the chief Chinese manufacturing engineer for Space X rockets.
Space X rocket explosion:
The problem is in my department
Hong Lide frankly told Red Star News that in fact, when he received a job offer from Space X in 2012, he did not know who Musk was, and at that time, the United States did not have a positive evaluation of Musk and Tesla. "At that time, Space X was just starting out, with less than one-tenth of Boeing's resources, but it was in this context that I had to do things that surpassed Boeing, and it was in this context that I entered Space X."
"After working with Musk for 7 years, one of his common sayings is 'as long as it works in physics, whether anyone has done it before, it works.'" Hong Lide said that Musk is very strict when recruiting talents, but once recruited, he will give talents full trust and great responsibility, each employee is responsible for the research and development of a certain part of the rocket, "even interns, will be assigned to an important project of rocket development, everyone is an important link in the chain, any link has a problem, the entire Space X This large gear will stop running." This kind of uniqueness and trust will make every employee of Space X have a strong sense of mission, and of course, it is also a huge pressure. ”
Because of the problems of his own department, when the Space X rocket exploded, Hong Lide really felt how heavy this invisible pressure was.
Hong Lide recalled that Space X exploded after liftoff. After the accident, engineers quickly calculated based on the data that there was a problem with the second rocket stage. "I was in charge of most of the second quarter of the Rockets." After the explosion, Hong Lide began to sort out all the information in the office and look for problems, "I remember that many colleagues came to me to ask me if I needed help, and my department leader was guarding outside my office door, and anyone who came, he would stop me and tell them, I need time and space to sort out now, please don't disturb him." ”
Mr. Hong recalled that while no one blamed him, he knew the whole team was waiting for his results. "In the end, it was found that the supplier had made a fraud, an untested material, which the supplier falsely claimed had been tested, causing a part of the rocket to be interrupted in the air, which eventually caused the explosion." Hong Lide said that although the rocket exploded, Space X's corporate culture did not see the explosion as a failure, but celebrated, because the whole team absorbed more experience and confirmed that it was not a technical problem, and everyone would continue to sprint forward with the most optimistic attitude.
Hong Lide and his wife pose for a photo in front of a Space X rocket
Space X loves science fiction:
Musk once chartered the team to watch "The Martian"
Piero Scaruffe, president of the Silicon Valley Artificial Intelligence Institute (SVAIRI), said in an interview with Red Star News: "Almost every engineer in Silicon Valley has been inspired and influenced by science fiction. ”
Hong Lide, who has been immersed in Silicon Valley for many years, agrees with Pierrot's words very much. "I can't say that every engineer in Silicon Valley is like this, but generally speaking, everyone is basically a science fiction fan." Hong said that the sci-fi fans in Space X are divided into two factions — Star Trek and Star War, and they are staunch Star Wars. "Although this movie is a science fiction movie many years ago, I deeply remember the imaginative story that shocked me when I first watched it as a child."
Hong Lide recalled that within Space X, the atmosphere of sci-fi culture was also strong, and founder Musk himself was a sci-fi fan. Hong Lide told Red Star News that Musk's favorite sci-fi work is "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and he often quotes the plot of this work when he gives examples on various occasions. "This science fiction work tells that when the earth is about to be destroyed, the protagonists can still face and solve problems calmly with the most optimistic spirit and positive attitude, and this is also the core of Space X's entrepreneurial spirit."
In 2015, when the sci-fi movie "The Martian" was released, Musk also chartered a movie theater near the company and invited the entire Space X team to watch the movie together, "Our team loves this movie, and the state in which top scientists from different countries in the world work together to complete a goal is an idealized future development direction." ”
Hong Lide told Red Star News that he recently watched the famous biographer Isaacson's "Elon Musk Biography". In the book, the author describes Musk in their eyes through different angles and different people.
Hong Lide (left) and colleagues
Leaving after 7 years at Space X:
Now he starts his own business in Silicon Valley
In 2019, the Space X Dragon cargo spacecraft was launched by the latest Falcon 9 rocket. At that time, Hong Lide managed 7 departments at Space X. He has accompanied Space X in 7 years from being unpopular at the beginning to about to soaring.
However, in this year, he chose to leave.
Today, Mr. Hong founded the company FP Solutions in the United States with KC McCreery, another former Tesla executive. Hong Lide introduced that his company will focus on three hardware fields: space technology, new energy, and robot automation, to help start-up teams find market positioning and attract financing, while relying on a huge network of experts such as Tesla and Space X to provide startups with professional help such as product optimization, manufacturing design, and supply chain.
The reason for targeting this Hengye, Hong Lide told Red Star News, because he knows how amazing the failure rate of the hardware technology industry in the start-up period is, but also believes that space, new energy and robot automation are the development direction in the next 10 years, so he is determined to devote himself to this field, he said that the company's development is relatively smooth, although financing is a relatively big challenge. "But I believe in science and I believe in the future."
Red Star News reporter Shen Xingyi
Edited by Guo Zhuang Responsible Editor: Wei Kongming
(Download Red Star News, there is a prize!) ）