I Don’t Need These Russians 120
because the Russians needed money for a wild night out.
But how do you come up with $5 000 in Los Angeles on a
Saturday? Fortunately, Ressi knew the manager of a hotel,
and he told the manager they needed all the cash the hotel
had.^278
Before the last visit to Russia, Ressi had become tired of
the Russians and remained home. Elon traveled on his own
with $21 million to buy three rockets. When he arrived, the
Russians had changed their mind. Now they wanted to sell
only one rocket for $21 million. Elon argued with them.
“Oh, little boy, you don’t have the money?” one Russian
replied, and Elon thought it was time to begin looking
elsewhere for rockets.^278
These trips to Russia affected Elon in a traumatic way.
“I would pay 20 million dollars not to spend six months in
Russia,” Elon replied when asked if he wanted to travel to
space as a space tourist with a Russian rocket.
It was perhaps just as well the deal with the Russians
didn’t happen. Elon realized a deal would be too risky
since it involved several parties across different countries.
The Russians owned the rocket, but they had to ship it
to Ukraine for refurbishment and conversion to launch
vehicle. Then they had to ship it back to Russia and towards
Kazakhstan where the launch took place.^365 Kazakhstan
used to be a part of the Soviet Union and is the home of
the Baikonur Cosmodrome base where all the Russian his-
torical rockets launched. When the Soviet Union dissolved,
it was too expensive to move the base to Russia, so the
Russian government leases it until 2050.