Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Nolan: Government Agency Believers Eagerly Collaborate With Credible Companies

Scott Nolan · From SpaceX to Founders Fund to Solving America's Nuclear Fuel Problem · Invest Like The Best · Apr 14, 2026 · at 30:09

Former SpaceX engineer and Founders Fund partner Scott Nolan discusses collaborating with NASA during SpaceX's development of the Dragon capsule under the COTS program.

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“And so I think my takeaway was in, in industries where you have true believers who are in the government agencies and who have been doing this for a long time, they're there because they want it to happen. And there's a lot of openness and excitement to working together. If the company is Is credible and is, you know, cares as much about safety and performance as the agency does.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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Assertion Not checkable as stated
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