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attempt to launch the Falcon 1 rocket. The launch became
a success. “It’s just a giant kick on the balls of the people
who said that we couldn’t do it,” Elon said. “A friend of
mine wrote to remind me that only 5 of the first 9 Pegasus
launches succeeded, 3 of 5 for Ariane, 9 of 20 for Atlas, 9
of 21 for Soyuz, and 9 of 18 for Proton. Having experienced
firsthand how hard it is to reach orbit, I have a lot of respect
for those that persevered to produce the vehicles that are
mainstays of space launch today.”^282
Athletes tend to be superstitious. It’s common to hear
how a soccer player always wears the same underwear
because it brings luck. What Elon did before the first
successful launch of a rocket from SpaceX was to bring his
kids to Disney World where they took a ride in the roller
coaster Space Mountain. Like the soccer player, Elon now
believes there’s a connection between Space Mountain and
a successful rocket launch, so it has become a tradition to
visit Disney World before each launch.^420
After the successful launch of Falcon 1, SpaceX had
now done something only nine nations and the European
Space Agency done before. “Unlike North Korea, whose
rockets actually get worse each flight, the Falcon 1 flights
got successively better,” Elon said.^56 This was a quote from
a time before North Korea claimed they had successfully
launched a satellite into space. Elon has made many mis-
takes, especially in his first companies, but he always tried
to learn something from each mistake.^67 “My biggest mis-
take is probably weighing too much on someone’s talent
and not someone’s personality. I think it matters whether