With SpaceX Success, Musk Rocketing Into a Brand Name

It may be soon that “musk” may not just signify male perfume. Instead, American consumers may immediately associate it with space travel or, more likely, with gobs of cash.

Like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Paul Allen, Elon Musk is a wealthy man who can now fund his boyish billionaire enthusiasm for space travel, and has now taken a major step toward making those kinds of trips more accessible to the common man.

The founder of SpaceX was obviously thrilled that his rocket made it off the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Tuesday following an aborted attempt. Its next challenge will be to hook up with the International Space Station on Friday to drop off a few things with the folks stationed there.

With that launch, Musk and his team have finally fully opened the door for private companies to not only perform government work and transport astronauts but also to take high-paying civilians up into the high frontier.

As the New York Times points out, Musk may soon be a brand name to the world just as Branson, Bezos, and Allen are. After all, the guy has more than just SpaceX working to help spread his name. 

The 40-year-old Musk, who co-founded PayPal and Zip2, is also busy in his day job as the CEO and chief product architect at Tesla Motors, which is marketing an all-electric sports car, and as the chairman of SolarCity, which designs and installs solar-energy systems.

Musk isn't the only celebrity attached to the SpaceX project. The Falcon 9 rocket headed into orbit with some high-profile passengers: the ashes of 306 people were on-board, including those of actor James Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek.