Commentary

Elon Musk Goes Ballistic, Almost

by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, March 9, 2013

Recalling the earliest stages of his SpaceX venture, Elon Musk said he was a bit naive about how to launch a new business -- especially one that launches things into deep space. Fresh off some big-time monetization from PayPal, the digital entrepreneur said he initially tried to buy existing off-the-shelf products to get his venture off the ground.

During his keynote conversation at SXSW Interactive, Musk told interviewer Chris Anderson that he initially attempted to buy some surplus intercontinental ballistic missiles from Russia.

“It was definitely an interesting experience,” he confided, adding, “I sort of had the feeeling that I could’ve bought the nukes too.”

Thankfully, he did not, but he did come up with some alternative, and importantly, recyclable methods for launching spaceships repeatedly into deep space.

While he didn’t use his PayPal account to fund it, Musk said he invested all the money he made from PayPal, Telsa and everything else to get SpaceX to the point of lift-off.