SpaceX went from three consecutive rocket explosions and near-bankruptcy in 2008 to the biggest IPO in history

Space X’s IPO on Friday officially made it one of the most valuable companies in the world with a $2 trillion market cap—but getting to this point was no easy feat. Just over two decades ago, Space X was a fledgling startup sparked by an idea Elon Musk had after talking with his old college roommate. Speaking to employees in Texas on Friday just before he rang the opening bell to signal Space X’s first day of trading, the CEO admitted he thought the company would fail. “I gave Space X less than a 10% chance of succeeding at all,” Musk said. In fact, SpaceX endured multiple rocket explosions and brushes with bankruptcy along the way. Here’s the story, according to Musk’s official biography, by Walter Isaacson. From PayPal to the stars Ousted as CEO of PayPal while he was on his honeymoon, Musk had plenty of time to explore his interests. One was learning to fly, like his father and maternal grandfather had done before him. With typical Musk obsessiveness, he bought a single-engine turboprop plane and covered the 50 hours of training needed to get his pilots license in two weeks. It was partly this affinity for flying that got him thinking about space flight. After a visit with Adeo Ressi, his roommate from the University of Pennsylvania, the pair discussed whether an individual could get to space without the backing of a government. While Ressi was dubious, Musk thought it might be possible, given that the basic requirements to make rockets, metal and fuel, are not extremely expensive. This same conversation led Musk to look on NASA’s website to find out what its plans were for going to Mars. His logic was that since humans had already gone to the moon decades ago, Mars was the natural next step, wrote Isaacson. But after searching online, Musk discovered NASA had no plans in place to reach Mars. As he explored the interest more, Musk went to a dinner hosted by the Mars Society, a nonprofit organization that promotes the idea of Mars travel. He started reading about rock