> SpaceX is arguably the only thing he’s done himself that is successful Not even that. Musk’s initial plan for SpaceX was to buy a couple of Dnepr rockets, so

> SpaceX is arguably the only thing he’s done himself that is successful Not even that. Musk’s initial plan for SpaceX was to buy a couple of Dnepr rockets, so he went to Russia in 2001 with Jim Cantrell, Adeo Ressi, and Mike Griffin. The trip was a failure. But Griffin, who was running In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s investment arm, and had attempted something similar around private launches when running Orbital Sciences in the 1990s, convinced Musk to build his own rockets. It was a time when a number of space engineering projects were winding down and lots of talented people becoming available. Griffin knew this better than Musk would have and introduced him to the right people and companies. SpaceX still moved fairly slowly after that, without any launch attempts until Griffin, then the newly appointed NASA Administrator, created the COTS programme and awarded a $400 million contract to SpaceX despite it being unproven. In 2008, when SpaceX was near bankruptcy, NASA under Griffin again awarded it a huge $1.6 billion dollar contract that both saved it and provided the needed funding for further rocket designs and bets like reusability. Musk has done a lot with SpaceX, and deserves some credit, but the general view about it being all him and all self funded is inaccurate.