SpaceX Innovation Algorithm

SpaceX has long inspired me by their iterative approach to making science fiction real. They have has improved their capabilities continuously, from their first launch, to launching once per year, to once per month, to once per week, to now once every few days. How did they do it?

I just saw this talk Kiko Dontchev, VP of Launch Operations, in which he explains their simple, 5 step approach. They call it, “The Algorithm.” Here’s how it works:

First Principles Applied to Technology

Make the requirements less dumb

Challenge constraints and requirements. Who created the constraint or gave you the requirement. Go to the source and find out why. When you innovate, you are going to be wrong many times. Where you end it not where you start. Constraints can be old and wrong or no longer relevant. So challenge them and toss them out when they are no longer relevant.

Delete the Part or Process Step

The most common engineering mistake is optimizing a problem that shouldn’t be solved in the first place. “As engineers, we are trained to solve the problems we are given, rather than ensuring we are solving the right problem or a necessary problem”. In school, you are not allowed to challenge the test. (See also, “The best part is no part.”)

Optimize

Run steps one and two many times before you optimize the actual solution. Optimizing something that is too complex leads to an unreliable product.

Accelerate

You can always go faster than you think you can. There is always something time to save and efficiencies to gain. Be surprised what happens when you challenge people!

Automate

Automation is very powerful! But if don’t run through the algorithm many times, you will automate something that is more complex than it should be. That will slow you down in the long run. Automation is the last step.

Example: Fairing recovery. The fairings protect the payload on launch but cost about 5 million dollars to manufacture. They wanted to save the money! Their initial thought was that it would be necessary to catch the fairing before it hit the salt water because of the corrosion it causes. This led to a complex barge with a huge net and complex navigation systems. The system did recover fairings, but it was not very reliable. Recovery only worked about 40% of the time, and that was not good enough to be useful.

They realized that fairings float, and if they just move key components to stay above the waterline, then little or no damage occurs. They could eliminate the boat and the net. Today, fairing recovery is about 99% successful.

P.S There is a lot of eye candy / rocket porn in this video. Enjoy!

• Whole video including the intro.
• His talk (2:43)
• The Algorithm (13:54)