Now for the inside story of the origins of leading-edge rocket company. SpaceX is headed by business magnate Elon Musk, who designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.
Elon Musk is the CEO of Tesla motors, and he has a background in industrial designing and engineering.
Space editor at Ars Technica, Eric Berger is a journalist, specialising in covering astronomy, ventures into space and NASA policy, He is also a certified meteorologist, and the author of the new book Liftoff, which is about the rise of SpaceX.