With the largest IPO in history, Musk’s SpaceX is really popular. But what’s more popular than the company is the people. In those stories of wealth and freedom, there are enough individual people. one of musk'sChinese female engineer, it has been all over the screen in the past two days. A scene in the Starfleet third anniversary documentary made countless people remember her: in front of the mission console, she had braided braids, wearing a headset and staring at the screen, her expression focused.
Immediately afterwards, "rumors" about her also came rolling in:
Some people say that she is only 27 years old and has a master's degree in engineering; some say that she holds the "launch termination right" that can determine the life or death of a starship; others say that she relies on a large amount of SpaceX equity and directly made tens of millions of dollars through this listing.
A young girl, while holding the power to "explode rockets", quietly became rich on the day of listing.
I have to say that this script is so catchy that netizens really think...
Soon, she had a well-known title:"Starship Queen".
But just as the rumors are getting more intense, the "Queen" herself has come out to clarify.
She said it was recently circulated,All! yes! rumor! Word!
First of all, her name isTina Li, not the various versions uploaded online.
Secondly, she didn’t graduate with a master’s or Ph.D., she was just an undergraduate from Stanford University.
Even when she first joined the company, she was just a novice in the hard-core fields of fluids and propulsion.
Although there are some rumors or errors in the stories that promote her, this does not prevent her true story from being still very exciting.
She is "one of many Raptor flight operators since flight 2" on the Starship. I wrote control software for the aircraft before flight 2, and was a stage software operator during the first flight (flight 1).
She said she spoke out because facts matter, but she also wanted to share her real life experiences, including how she came to SpaceX.
Who is "Starship Queen"?
Before being called the "Queen of Starships" by the entire Internet, Tina's description of herself was actually much simpler.
She said that she was an ordinary undergraduate student with neither a master's nor a doctorate.
When she first joined the company, she knew "almost nothing" about the hard-core fields of fluids and propulsion. She learned a lot of things on the job and from her mentors and teams.
Along the way, she was more like “learning by doing”:
She graduated from Stanford University. While in college, she worked on several design teams and built Stanford's solar car and a Mars rover.
Before she graduated, she had already interned at SpaceX twice; instead of continuing her studies after graduation, she directly joined SpaceX full-time, first as a software engineer.
It wasn’t until midway through her career that she dove headfirst into advancement—and then, in her own words, “I fell in love with it and have been doing it ever since.”
Young may be young, but Tina is already considered a veteran in the starship project.
As early as 2020, when Starship was just a pile of stainless steel prototypes on the beach in Boca Chica, she was already on the scene.
It was the most grassroots and most "explosive" era of starships: SN5 and SN6 completed 150-meter jumps one after another; in SN8, they flew to an altitude of 12.5 kilometers, calmly completed posture adjustments like "belly flips", and finally smashed into a ball of fire the moment they landed.
One prototype after another, taking off, exploding, and starting again.
Tina has watched it all the way since then.
On its first flight (flight 1) in 2023, she was the "stage" software operator of the aircraft. The rocket disintegrated in the air a few minutes after it took off.
At the beginning of the second test flight, she switched to the role of Raptor flight operator, watching every parameter of the engine in real time on the console: pressure, temperature, speed, combustion stability... Behind these data are key signals on whether each Raptor engine can sustain flight.
Therefore, the "power to terminate the launch" rumored online is actually not accurate.
SpaceX does have a starship flight termination system, which is an FTS-related position. It is also clearly written in the public JD that it is one of the few safety-critical systems on the aircraft and involves design, certification and licensing deliverables for each launch.
But this is not the same role as the Raptor flight operator that Tina describes herself as.
She has been restrained in defining herself: since her second test flight, she has been just "one of many Raptor flight operators."
And what she talked about most emotionally was this base and this group of people.
Starting from the suborbital test in 2020, she has lived at the starship base for several years.
She said she loved this place and this group of partners who were excited and glowing for the same mission:"They are the best friends in the world and I love them - from the Earth to the moon to Mars and back."
If you look through Tina's Twitter posts, you will find that she really loves her career and works very hard.
She said she couldn't help but check her work email every 10 minutes when she was taking a break.
She also spent Women's Day in 2022 at the Starship Base.
Even if she works until late at night, she will take a photo and send it to Twitter to say good night to the starship base.
Before and after the 12th flight test of the starship, Tina also posted a photo of herself and her team in front of the launch pad of the starship base, and wrote emotionally:
It was a tough battle "full of blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice" but grateful to have done it with the best partners and team in the world!
At the end of the tweet, she signed:
Your favorite raptor1.
You can really feel her love for Starship through the screen.
Therefore, Tina is not a mythical "Starship Queen".
She is a front-line engineer who has been stationed at the starship base for 6 years and grew up with the starship.
Is it true that SpaceX makes money?
However, Tina herself clarified her name, position, and educational background, but did not mention anything about money.
The reason for her popularity is largely due to the epic wealth creation of SpaceX.
On June 12, SpaceX landed on Nasdaq under the code SPCX, with an issue price of US$135. On its first day of listing, it surged about 19% and closed at US$160.95.
After listing, the stock price continued to rise, and the current market value has steadily exceeded 2 trillion US dollars.
According to reports from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, more than 4,400 current and former employees are expected to become millionaires through this listing.About 400 of them are worth more than $100 million.
The secret lies in the way it pays wages: the cash payment is not high, but a large amount of equity is given out, and everyone from engineers to welders and technicians has a share.
It may seem inconspicuous at ordinary times, but once the company is listed and cashed in, the profits come out.
This method of play is not uncommon. For example, in the early years of Google and NVIDIA, the most profitable people were often not those who "received high salaries," but those who "obtained equity early and waited until they were listed."
Meanwhile, SpaceX continues to set new records.
By June 15, underwriters Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley exercised their "green shoe" over-allotment rights and issued an additional 83.3 million shares. The total amount of funds raised by SpaceX's IPO increased from US$75 billion in the first round to$85.7 billion.
SpaceX has officially settled downLargest IPO in history, leaving Saudi Aramco’s old record of $29 billion in 2019 far behind.
In this year's IPO wave, in addition to SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic are also lining up. "Low cash + high equity + listing for cash" is creating new rich people in batches.