The $500-per-plate event was to take place at the house of one of the well-off Mars Society members, and invitations to the usual characters had been mailed out. Musk’s first interactions with the aeronautics community were with an eclectic collection of space enthusiasts, members of a non-profit group called the Mars Society.ĭedicated to exploring and settling the Red Planet, the Mars Society planned to hold a fund-raiser in mid-2001. They could help him refine any ideas, and there would be plenty of recruits to join his next venture. While Musk didn’t know exactly what he wanted to do in space, he realized that just by being in Los Angeles he would be surrounded by the world’s top aeronautics thinkers. Today, the city remains a major hub for the military’s aeronautics work and commercial activity. Howard Hughes, the US Air Force, NASA, Boeing, and myriad other people and organizations have performed much of their manufacturing and cutting- edge experimentation in and around Los Angeles. Southern California’s mild, consistent weather had made it a favored city of the aeronautics industry since the 1920s, when the Lockheed Aircraft Company set up shop in Hollywood. “He was studying it and talking openly about space travel and changing the world.” “We’re all hanging out in this cabana at the Hard Rock Cafe, and Elon is there reading some obscure Soviet rocket manual that was all moldy and looked like it had been bought on eBay,” said Kevin Hartz, an early PayPal investor. The changes in his attitude and thinking soon became obvious to his friends, including a group of PayPal executives who had gathered in Las Vegas one weekend to celebrate the company’s success. After being pushed out of PayPal, Musk had started to revisit his childhood fantasies around rocket ships and space travel and to think that he might have a greater calling than creating internet services.
It wasn’t just Los Angeles’s glitz and grandeur that attracted Musk. “Elon likes to be where the action is.” A small group of Musk’s friends who felt similarly had also decamped to Los Angeles for what would be a wild couple of years. “There’s an element to him that likes the style and the excitement and color of a place like LA,” said Justine. The couple decided to move south and begin their family and the next chapter of their lives in Los Angeles. Musk’s entire life had been about chasing a bigger stage, and Palo Alto seemed more like a stepping- stone than a final destination.
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