Welcome to the first installment of a new series of articles exploring the rich history of SpaceX through interesting, informative and fun stories, as told by SpaceX and NASA employees, investors and others.

In this video from 2015, former SpaceX employee Brian Mosdell will tell you about the construction of launch pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral back in 2008. The most interesting aspect of the story is how SpaceX had to be very scrappy and resourceful, reusing old hardware to keep the costs down. In the end, SpaceX managed to construct the pad for much less than what it cost to build a nearby Delta 4 pad.

Sadly, SLC-40 was then destroyed in September 2016 during the Amos-6 mishap and had to be pretty much completely rebuilt in 2017.