In March of 2006, Elon Musk sat down with CNBC just days after SpaceX's first demo launch. Musk talked about the future of his rocket company even after its first demonstration failed.

"We got a lot of data from this first flight even though it didn't get all the way to orbit," Musk said.

SpaceX was founded by Musk in 2002, with the goal of creating a new kind of privatized space industry. While his company became the first privatized space company to return a spacecraft to Earth from low orbit; it had some bumps in the road. Including, the initial flight of its first rocket, the Falcon 1.

Musk personally invested $100 million of his own money into SpaceX. But it wasn't long before it started to pull in money from clients. SpaceX secured several contracts totaling close to $200 million, including a deal with Washington. Musk broke down the cost of its first launch saying, "The launch cost us about $7 million, it's about $1 million worth of extras that [the government] bought."



Even though the first demonstration of its rocket failed, Musk said the government was "reasonably happy" with the launch.

Musk said he would be prepared to fund SpaceX all the way "until SpaceX was the top launch company."