Shadowing Practice: Why SpaceX Will Become the World's Most Valuable Company - Learn English Speaking with Video
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The board of SpaceX has approved one of the most extreme CEO compensation packages in history.
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They’re offering Elon Musk up to 200 million shares but only if SpaceX reaches a $7.5 trillion valuation.
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These aren’t ordinary shares.
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They carry 10 votes each instead of 1, giving Musk enormous control over the company.
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To put that into perspective, the most valuable companies in the world today, Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon are only about halfway there.
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And that’s not all.
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To unlock those shares, SpaceX must also help establish a permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million people.
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Musk is in his mid-50s.
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Which means this would have to happen in the next 20 to 30 years.
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The ambition behind SpaceX started two decades ago, over Labor Day weekend in 2001.
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Musk was visiting his college friend Adeo Ressi in the Hamptons.
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On the drive back to Manhattan, Musk said he wanted to do something about space but didn’t think a private individual could build rockets.
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Still, he wanted to try. Life can’t just be about solving problems. There have to be things that inspire you, that move your heart.
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Somewhere toward the end of that drive, something shifted.
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Maybe, just maybe, it was possible.
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The only problem was cost.
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When Musk tried to buy refurbished rockets from Russia to send a greenhouse to Mars, they laughed at him.
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The Russians quoted $18 million, then raised it to $21 million just to mock him.
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So he decided to build his own.
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To cut costs, SpaceX would manufacture as much as possible in-house.
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When a supplier quoted $120,000 for a simple actuator, SpaceX built it for $5,000.
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As Musk put it, it wasn’t any more complicated than a garage door opener.
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He had a term for this: The “idiot index.” The gap between what something costs to make and what it’s sold for. His goal was to close that gap.
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But the problem wasn’t just the cost - the system itself was broken.
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In 2004, Musk did something unthinkable: he sued NASA.
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The agency had awarded a $227 million contract to Kistler Aerospace without competition to keep the company from going bankrupt.
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This made no sense to Musk.
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He believed contracts should go to companies that can actually deliver.
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Everyone told him not to sue, but he refused to listen.
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As he later said to biographer Walter Isaacson: “Everyone told me we might never work with NASA again. But what they did was wrong, so I sued.” SpaceX won. NASA was forced to open the contract to competitive bidding, with SpaceX winning a significant portion.
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It was a turning point.
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Contracts were no longer handed out — they had to be earned.
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In 2003, Malaysia agreed to pay SpaceX $6 million to launch an Earth observation satellite.
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To make it work, the rocket had to launch near the equator, where Earth’s rotation provides an extra boost.
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So SpaceX moved operations to the Marshall Islands.
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The team worked out of Kwajalein Atoll, with the launch site 20 miles away on a tiny island called Omelek - just 700 feet wide or about 200 meters.
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There was nothing there. They had to build everything from scratch, even pouring concrete for a launchpad. We have liftoff confirmed The first launch took place on March 24, 2006.
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But seconds after the Falcon 1 lifted off, a fire broke out.
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A fuel leak—caused by corrosion from the salty sea air—destroyed the rocket.
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A year later, they tried again. This time, Falcon 1 made it much further.
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But as it ascended, fuel sloshing in the tank destabilized the upper stage, causing it to spin out of control. In August 2008, they tried a third time.
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This time, it almost worked.
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But after stage separation, the booster collided with the second stage because the engine still had a bit of thrust even after shutdown in the vacuum of space.
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After three failed launches, SpaceX was running out of money.
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At the same time, Tesla was nearing bankruptcy.
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And Musk was going through a divorce from his first wife, Justine.
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His partner at the time, Talulah Riley, described how physically and emotionally exhausted Musk was: “I kept thinking he was going to have a heart attack. He was having night terrors and just screaming in his sleep and clawing at me. It was horrendous.” And yet, he kept going.
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Dolly Singh, SpaceX’s head of talent acquisition, recalled how Musk addressed his staff: “For my part, I will never give up and I mean never,” and that if we stick with him, we will win. I think most of us would have followed him into the gates of hell carrying suntan oil after that. It was the most impressive display of leadership that I have ever witnessed.” Then, an unexpected lifeline gave SpaceX another chance.
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The PayPal co-founders who had once pushed Musk out as CEO stepped in to help.
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Peter Thiel and his venture capital fund, Founders Fund, invested $20 million in SpaceX, enough for another launch.
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While flying the fourth rocket to Kwajalein rather than shipping it by barge to save time, the team heard a loud “pop”.
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The first-stage tank had sunk in after losing internal pressure.
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For a moment, it felt like everything was over.
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They called Musk. He was silent for a minute before he told them to keep going, to fly to Kwaj and fix it there.
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Water Isaacson describes “...a hive of engineers scurrying around in the middle of the night working frantically on the tripped rocket, as if they were doctors in an emergency room trying to save a patient.” And it worked.
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3, 2, 1, 0 On September 28, 2008, everything was on the line.
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We have liftoff Musk watched the fourth launch from the command van at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles.
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This time… Stage separation confirmed Success.
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Falcon 1 became the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit.
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And immediately, everything changed.
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NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to resupply the International Space Station SpaceX had secured its future.
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Over time, it would build far more powerful rockets.
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But the philosophy stayed the same: make them as cheaply as possible.
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When military safety regulations required the cranes that lifted the Falcon 9 to cost $2 million, SpaceX questioned the rules, got them revised, and built them for $300,000.
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When a cooling system for the payload bay was quoted at over $3 million, they took a standard $6,000 home air-conditioning unit and modified it to work on the rocket.
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SpaceX proved rockets didn’t have to be built the old way and eventually, the government took notice.
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In 2010, President Obama cancelled NASA’s Constellation program, its next-generation rocket to succeed the space shuttle, in order to partner with the private sector.
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But astronauts like Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan warned Congress that relying on private companies could be risky.
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For Musk, it was painful to hear, as he told CBS’ 60 Minutes: I was very sad to see that because those guys are heroes of mine so it’s really tough. I wish they would come visit, and see the hardware we're doing here. And I think that would change their mind.
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While others were debating whether SpaceX could replace NASA, Musk was already thinking bigger.
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As early as 2014, he was talking about specific plans for building a city on Mars.
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To do that, SpaceX would need something far more powerful than the Falcon 9.
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In 2017, SpaceX announced plans for Starship, a fully reusable rocket - the largest and most powerful ever built. At first, it was designed with carbon fiber. But the material was expensive and difficult to manufacture.
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So Musk decided to switch to stainless steel. At extremely cold temperatures, steel becomes significantly stronger, making it ideal for storing supercooled propellants.
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It also handles extreme heat far better, so only one side of the rocket requires a heat shield for reentry, saving significant weight.
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SpaceX has already spent $15 billion developing Starship.
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For comparison, the Apollo program that brought us to the moon cost $25 billion back then, or around $180 billion today.
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But SpaceX is aiming for something far more ambitious: frequent trips to the Moon and Mars.
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To make that possible, the rocket has to be able to be reused like an airplane.
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Building something like that requires enormous capital.
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And liftoff Go Falcon, go Starlink Right now, that capital is coming from Starlink, its global network of thousands of satellites delivering high-speed internet.
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In 2025, Starlink generated an estimated $11.4 billion in revenue, making up as much as 80% of SpaceX’s total revenue, more than its rocket launches.
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Just a few years earlier, it was barely over a billion.
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Its margins are extremely strong—around 60%.
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But getting to Mars still requires far more, which is why SpaceX is preparing what could be the largest IPO in history, aiming to raise as much as $75 billion — about 2.5 times the record set by Saudi Aramco.
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That kind of capital would let SpaceX accelerate Starship development without relying solely on Starlink.
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While Musk has talked about using a fleet of 1,000 Starships to build a colony on Mars by 2050, NASA is taking a far more cautious approach and describes even sending the first humans there by 2040 as an “audacious goal.” In the near term, SpaceX is prioritizing building a city on the Moon, which can happen much faster due to its closer distance.
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But in the long run, the goal is still Mars. And by chasing that goal, Elon Musk could earn those 200 million shares, and SpaceX could become the most valuable company in the world.
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If SpaceX does go public - it could be one of the largest IPOs in history.
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At that point, each share could be extremely expensive.
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So, how do you invest in a company like SpaceX before it goes public?
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Because right now SpaceX isn’t listed on the stock market, they’re private.
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And traditionally, that meant access was limited to institutions or ultra-wealthy investors.
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But that’s starting to change.
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Jarsy lets you invest in shares of private companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, Stripe, and Discord.
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You don’t need to buy a full share.
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You can invest smaller amounts and own a portion of one.
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So instead of waiting until a company goes public when demand is high and prices even higher, you can get exposure earlier.
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And if the company goes public, the token price can mirror the stock price (allowing you to sell at the corresponding market value) even though the tokens don’t convert into actual shares.
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If you want to get access to this opportunity, you can check out Jarsy using the link in my description.
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Thanks for watching. For Newsthink, I’m Cindy Pom.
About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice speaking skills using advanced vocabulary and phrases related to ambition and leadership, inspired by the strategies of SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk. You will enhance your listening and speaking abilities through the shadowing technique, which involves mimicking the speaker's intonation and pace. This exercise will help you become more fluent and confident in your English-speaking skills, particularly useful for scenarios like IELTS speaking practice.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Compensation package - A collection of salary and benefits offered to an employee.
- Valuation - The estimate of a company's worth.
- Ambition - A strong desire to achieve something.
- In-house - Operations conducted within a company rather than outsourced.
- Competitive bidding - A process where multiple parties submit offers to win a contract.
- Liftoff - The moment a rocket or spacecraft launches into the air.
- Investment - The action or process of putting money into something to earn a financial return.
- Leadership - The art of motivating a group to work towards achieving a common goal.
Practice Tips
To utilize the shadowing technique effectively with this video, focus on following these steps:
- Listen Attentively: Watch the video at a slower speed to ensure you understand each word and phrase used by the speaker.
- Repeat While Listening: As you listen, try to repeat the phrases at the same time. This will help you match the speaker's rhythm and intonation. Use the term shadow speech to describe your practice.
- Record Yourself: After practicing, record your shadow speak. This allows you to assess your pronunciation and fluency compared to the original clip.
- Emulate Emotion and Tone: Pay attention to the motivational tone throughout the video. Practice mimicking this emotional delivery to enhance your speaking skills.
- Practice Regularly: Consistency is key for improvement. Incorporating this practice into your daily routine will greatly aid in your IELTS speaking practice and overall fluency.
By regularly engaging with the content in this manner, your confidence and eloquence in speaking English will grow significantly, positioning you well for success in any speaking examination. Happy practicing!
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.