The BBC reports that Elon Must was so scared of the failure of both SpaceX and Tesla, that he would not let his friends invest. A man to whom the concept of hyperbole is alien, Musk told an audience at the South by South West (SXSW) conference that these companies were near collapse in 2008, and even earlier, in 2002, he dissuaded friends from investing. However, he kept backing his projects, and in his words “they both came through".

Looking to the future he reiterated his belief that manned Mars missions were an essential insurance policy for humanity against the possibility of a major war that might reduce Earth to a level where the space colonists could return to help it rebuild.

Share Story: