Slideshow: Net Maverick Sets Sights on Space

After selling PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion, some entrepreneurs might retire to a tropical island. Not Elon Musk, who is determined to revolutionize the satellite-launching business with his new company, SpaceX. By Suneel Ratan.
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By his own admission, Musk is making some grandiose claims -- among them that he will cut the cost of launching up to 1,000 pounds of payload into near-Earth orbit by up to two-thirds, and that he can buck the dismal success rate of space-launch startups.SpaceX

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Less than a year after wrapping up his involvement in PayPal, 31-year-old Elon Musk is on a mission to revolutionize the technology and economics of the space-launch business with his new company, SpaceX. Musk says his new project is on course to launch its brand-spanking-new Falcon rocket by the end of the year -- with a U.S. military satellite on board.

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