SpaceX's first employee remains on mission: "Space is super important"

SpaceX's archetypal worker and Elon Musk shared an enthusiasm for exemplary rockets. 

"I met Elon done an amateur rocket club, and helium convinced maine to permission that vocation and travel bash thing exciting, which was 1 of the champion decisions I ever made," aerospace technologist Tom Mueller told CBS News elder concern and exertion analogous Jo Ling Kent. 

On the eve of the abstraction exploration company's historic archetypal nationalist offering, Mueller besides praised Musk's abilities arsenic an entrepreneur and mentor, saying that the billionaire laminitis of SpaceX, Tesla and xAI "found bully talent, and helium energized bully talent."

Mueller besides had religion that SpaceX, which helium joined successful 2002, would alteration the past of abstraction exploration. "We believed it and we did it. So it was truly cool," helium said.

Mueller is among the erstwhile and existent SpaceX employees who ain equity successful the company, which is acceptable to spell nationalist connected Friday successful the biggest-ever IPO.

"All of america are going to bash large successful this IPO. I mean, we've done great. SpaceX has been highly successful. ...it's bully for each the employees, and myself included," helium told CBS News.

As for Musk — the world's richest person, with an estimated nett worthy of astir $700 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index — the banal offering could marque him the world's archetypal trillionaire. 

"It worked"

Mueller, who arsenic caput of propulsion probe astatine SpaceX helped physique the engines that powered the company's Falcon 9 rocket, said the IPO is different marker of the company's success. 

"Elon truly wanted to marque a low-cost mode to get space, which became Falcon 9...and it worked," Mueller said.

Mueller yet near SpaceX and founded Impulse Space, a startup focused connected delivering payloads successful abstraction and moving satellites, among different services. 

He is besides a steadfast evangelist for abstraction exploration, noting the downstream benefits for radical connected Earth, specified arsenic GPS and much close upwind forecasting.  

"So abstraction is ace important — much than radical realize. And I deliberation there's a batch of things that request to beryllium done successful abstraction that are starting to hap now, similar orbital information centers utilizing the resources of the satellite and asteroids," helium said. "So I deliberation it's conscionable truly going to instrumentality disconnected from here."

Edited by Emily Pandise and Alain Sherter

In:

• Elon Musk
• Space
• SpaceX