F2F Class Notes (Mike)

Then is persistence. Now, we all know that NASA selected Space X to build a lander to take humans to the moon. But before it, Musk and his team experienced several test failures and very difficult period in Dec 2008. Besides, suspicion always does exist before the first successful launch.
This year, I got the drive driver license. I believe I will have Tesla Car one day sooner or later.

Then it’s persistence. Now, we all know that NASA selected Space X to build a lander to take humans to the moon. But before it, Musk and his team experienced several test failures and a very difficult period in Dec 2008. There will always be suspicion and skepticism before your first successful launch.
This year, I got my driver’s license and I want to show my support and admiration for the man I admire the most. I believe I will have a Tesla Car sooner or later.

Vocabulary

driving license/driver’s license 

license plate 

auto – manual 
I can only drive an auto, I did not learn how to drive a manual

autopilot

driverless 

maturity (n) 

agitate (v) 激怒， 使…焦虑
He was agitated by what I said. 

punctual (adj.)  – punctuality: to be on time

spread gossip/rumor

signs of a mature person

I don’t know what we don’t know

I know what I don’t know

I don’t realize what I know 

In August of 2008, Elon Musk watched with delight and then horror as the Falcon 1 rocket built by his company SpaceX launched from an atoll in the Pacific and then, just after the first stage separated, tumbled out of control. Its payload, including a United States Air Force satellite and the remains of the late actor James Doohan, who had played Scotty on Star Trek, crashed into the ocean. It was the third failed attempt by SpaceX to launch a satellite into orbit. Musk had not budgeted for another. “I thought that if we couldn’t get this thing to orbit in three failures, we deserved to die,” he later said.

A few weeks later, he gathered the top executives of Tesla, his troubled electric car company, and said they were about to run out of money. They had burned through much of the millions of dollars of deposits that customers had paid to get in line for the high-end Roadster the company had promised but not yet delivered. Musk fired the CEO, appointed himself to the role, and launched a plan to cut 25 percent of his workforce. Over dinner with one of his investors at a Beverly Hills steakhouse, he confided that the company had only three weeks of cash left. Then he pulled out his BlackBerry and showed the investor a picture of a mockup of the luxury sedan that he planned for Tesla to build next.