http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
Elon R. Musk (/ˈiːlɒn ˈmʌsk/; born June 28, 1971) is a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, inventor[5][6] and investor.[7][8][9] He is currently the CEO and CTO of SpaceX and CEO and Chief Product Architect of Tesla Motors.[10] He was an early investor in SpaceX, PayPal, Inc.[11] Tesla Motors, and Zip2,[12][13] and is widely considered a co-founder of each.[14][15][16][17][18][19] He has also envisioned a conceptual high-speed transportation system known as the Hyperloop.[20]
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/11/news/companies/musk-spacex-washington/
How do you woo powerful friends to help your new aerospace company get big-dollar contracts?
When it comes to shuttling people into space, Musk's space capsule will compete with Boeing and also Sierra Nevada Corp. (the tech company, not the beer company).
The rush by private aerospace companies to launch people into space is being driven by NASA's decision to shut down its space shuttle program. Right now, U.S. astronauts must hitch a ride with the Russians to get to outer space.
But things have gotten awkward for SpaceX in Washington. In April, Musk sued the federal government for unfairly shutting out SpaceX from a big $7.2 billion contract to launch things into space, like GPS satellites.