Elon Musk of SpaceX

One part of the Foundation that we don't always talk about enough is our Board Members. We really do have an extraordinary collection of people on our Board of Trustees, all of whom are an integral part of making the X PRIZE Foundation work.

I think I'm going to start giving a brief overview of some of our Board Members, in no particular order, but as I think of them, or find something interesting that they've done.

Starting with Elon Musk, who was the gracious host of this past Board Meeting, which I had the pleasure of attending.



Elon Musk, from South Africa, is a computer programer who came to fame and fortune by co-founding the online payment system PayPal. After PayPal was sold to eBay, Elon moved on to start and run several exciting companies. Elon is the CEO & Chief Technology Officer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space ultimately by a factor of ten. SpaceX launched Falcon 1 into orbit on September 28, 2008, which was the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket. They are also the preferred launch provider for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Elon will offer rides to anyone competing in the prize at cost, which is a great deal. One of my favorite parts of the Board meeting was getting a tour of the SpaceX facitility from Elon himself.

Elon is also the Chairman of Tesla Motors, a builder of electric vehicles. You've probably seen the sleek looking Tesla, either in person if you live in So. Cal., or floating around the Internet. It's a beautiful looking car. Tesla is planning to enter the Progressive Insurance Autmotive X PRIZE.



Elon is also the Chairman of Solar City, solar energy system design, financing, installation and related services.