Behind every billionaire there is a story!

Musk Makes Rockets for Stars as Tesla Taunts Ferrari on Earth

Elon Musk, co-founder of payment giant PayPal Inc., was flying back empty handed from Moscow for a third time in November 2001, when the idea for his new company hit him.His attempt to buy an unarmed SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, a rocket the Soviet Union had aimed at the U.S. during the Cold War, fell through when launch company IS Kosmotras wouldn’t bend on price. Now Musk, tapping furiously on his laptop, was calculating how to make his quest to put a greenhouse on Mars a reality without the Russian craft.

“Elon leans over and says we can build the rocket ourselves,” recalls James Cantrell, chief executive officer of research firm Strategic Space Development Inc., who accompanied Musk. “We rolled our eyes. But Elon says, `Look at the spreadsheet.’ He’d worked out a plan.”

After raking in almost $300 million selling his online companies PayPal and Zip2 Corp., a directory provider, South African-born Musk, 37, is aiming skyward for his next act.

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