Elon Musk: SpaceX Wins Because We Innovate Faster Than Big Aerospace

Elon Musk in 2014: We're competitive because we innovate much, much faster than big aerospace companies.

“In terms of [SpaceX's] competitiveness, I think it mostly comes down to our pace of innovation. Our pace of innovation is much, much faster than the big aerospace companies or the country-driven systems.

This is generally true if you look at innovation from large companies or from smaller companies. Smaller companies are generally better at innovating than larger companies.

It has to be that way from a Darwinian standpoint because smaller companies would just die if they didn't try innovating. Otherwise, people would just keep buying the product from the big companies.”

MIT AeroAstro, October 24, 2014