• HISTORY
• PRESS ROOM
• OUR FOUNDERS
• OUR MEMBERS
• OUR PARTNERS
• FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
• BOARD OF DIRECTORS
• ADVISORY COUNCIL
• STAFF
• VOLUNTEERS
• CONTACT US

browse projects: Apophis Mission Design Competition Asteroid Impact Mapping System Catalog of Exoplanets Drive a Mars Rover Extrasolar Planets Transit Search International Lunar Decade LIFE Experiment: Phobos Mars Climate Sounder Team Website Messages from Earth Observing Earth Pioneer Anomaly Planetary Microphones S.O.S: Save Our Science! SETI Optical Telescope SETI Radio Searches SETI@home Shoemaker NEO Grants Solar Sailing Space Advocacy Space Information Stardust@home Target Earth Visions of Mars

browse space topics: 2001 Mars Odyssey Asteroids and Comets Cassini-Huygens Chandra X-Ray Observatory Chandrayaan-1 Chang'e 1 Compare the Planets Dawn Deep Impact Earth Extrasolar Planets Genesis Hayabusa (MUSES-C) Hubble Space Telescope Jupiter Kaguya (SELENE) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Mars Mars Exploration Rovers Mars Express Mars Global Surveyor Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mercury MESSENGER Moon Near Earth Objects Neptune New Horizons New Horizons Digital Time Capsule Past Missions Phoenix Planetary Analogs Planetary Exploration Timelines Planetfest 2008 Pluto and Charon Pluto Top Ten Postcards from Venus Private Missions Rosetta Saturn Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SMART-1 SOHO Space Imaging Spitzer Space Telescope Stardust Trans-Neptunian Objects Ulysses Uranus Venus Venus Express Voyager Weekly Planetary Radio Trivia Contest

Board of Directors

Elon Musk

Click to enlarge > Elon Musk

Elon Musk, founder of three companies, joined The Planetary Society’s Board of Directors in 2003.  Currently CEO and Chief Technology Officer of SpaceX, Musk is a strong supporter of space exploration.  SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space.

Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, and served as the company's chairman and CEO. Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay in 2002.

Before PayPal,  Musk co-founded Zip2 Corporation in 1995, a leading provider of enterprise software and services to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank, and the Hearst Corporation.  He served as Chairman, CEO, and Chief Technology Officer and in March 1999, sold Zip2 to Compaq.