SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently spoke about the challenges he encountered while attempting to launch the aerospace company. In a now-viral clip on X, Musk shared the difficult circumstances that affected the initial phases of SpaceX’s inception. The concerns fundamentally stemmed from business failures and a lack of eager people to partake in the new venture.
With SpaceX, Elon Musk endeavored to step into the commercial rocketry sector. However, given the number of startups that have failed to do so, Musk was reportedly aware of the challenges. In the video clip, he said that he approached potential employees and members about the new venture, informing them that there was “a less than 10% chance of being successful.”
Elon Musk confesses his initial concerns about SpaceX launch
On November 17, X user @cb_doge posted a short video clip that featured Elon Musk. In the video, he spoke of the risks and concerns he had regarding the launch of his aerospace company, SpaceX. The video begins with Musk talking about the trends being against companies that endeavored to take part in the commercial rocketry sector. In this line of thought, he remarked that they had “less than 10% chance” to be a successful company.
Elon Musk started SpaceX with a 90% chance of failure. When hiring, he warned people: “We’re probably going to die.” No top engineers wanted to join because of that. So Elon became chief rocket engineer himself. pic.twitter.com/FF0e3u5JSw
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) November 17, 2025
Simultaneously, the lack of research and innovations in the sciences involving rocket manufacturing and development stemmed from the defense contractors who, in Musk’s words, “Impede and smash to the government.” At the same time, the governments choose to do “very conventional things.” Also, 2008 was a turbulent period in the market as well as the tech industry, which justified the apprehension regarding the startup’s success.
With this, the SpaceX CEO chose to inform his potential employees about the possibilities that await in the aerospace industry as well as the challenges ahead of them. Unfortunately, most of them backed out for the risks involved.
This was mainly the reason why, as Musk claimed in the video, the SpaceX CEO became the chief rocket engineer of Falcon 1. Under his supervision, Falcon 1 was launched successfully at the fourth attempt, which was coincidentally the only chance the team had. This triumph materialized in their later projects as they broke every record as far as commercial rockets are concerned.
Related: Elon Musk Gets Candid on Why He Started OpenAI
Elon Musk’s experience is a lesson in entrepreneurship
Prior to this video, which seems to be a clip from an interview session of Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO had reiterated the fact that there was very little chance for SpaceX to thrive as a strong organization. In an X post dated September 19, 2020, Elon Musk responded to another user’s commentary on the former’s creative genius.
To be frank, in the early days, I thought there was >90% chance that both SpaceX & Tesla would be worth $0. The press & aerospace / automotive industry at the time (correctly) agreed with me.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 19, 2020
Musk wrote, “To be frank, in the early days, I thought there was >90% chance that both SpaceX & Tesla would be worth $0. The press & aerospace / automotive industry at the time (correctly) agreed with me.“
In 2025, looking at SpaceX from hindsight, it would appear that the CEO’s concerns about whether the startup could survive the market at all were nothing to worry about. In actuality, the risks as well as the foreseeable instances that could lead to the failure of SpaceX were quite high. Nevertheless, Musk’s perseverance to go ahead with the new startup in 2008 is a brilliant lesson on weighing opportunities and risk management.
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