THINGS COULD HAVE turned out very differently for Elon Musk. On 3 August 2008, his company SpaceX made its third attempt to get a rocket into orbit. Just as the second stage separated, residual fuel in the first stage thrust it forward, and the two parts collided mid-flight, knocking the ship off course. It was a disaster. Musk was close to bankruptcy; he had only ever budgeted for three launches (mainly funded by the US government plus his own money). They’d all failed.