Elon Musk

As shipments go, it was routine -- about half a ton of supplies -- except it was delivered by the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX partnered with NASA in this new model, the brainchild of Elon Musk, who's behind Tesla electric cars as well. Musk left South Africa at 17, earned two U.S. undergraduate degrees and then made serial piles of dough pioneering online payment systems, including the one that became PayPal. Musk's persona inspired aspects of the portrayal of Tony Stark in "Iron Man," but his aspirations seem more like Buzz Lightyear's -- to infinity, and beyond.

Re "Tesla drives state credits to the bank," May 6 Tesla Motors is an example of an innovative, homegrown California industry. It is building ultra-clean cars and providing employment for 2,800 people in a formerly abandoned car factory. This success is not being subsidized by other car companies. Car manufacturers are not required to purchase credits (which Tesla can sell to its competitors), nor does the state's Air Resources Board establish a price. The credits are entirely an opportunity to provide additional flexibility to car manufacturers to comply with a program whose ultimate goal is to support the commercialization of cutting-edge clean technology vehicles, and ensure that we get as many of them as possible on our roads and highways as fast as possible.

No stranger to leveraging his Twitter presence to maximize attention for his electric car company, Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk sent his company's stock up 2.5% on Monday with a single, cryptic tweet. "Really exciting @TeslaMotors announcement coming on Thursday. Am going to put my money where my mouth is in v major way," Musk tweeted . The markets noticed, sending Tesla shares up 91 cents to close at $37.53. Tesla shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Just what Musk has up his sleeve remains a mystery.

Elon Musk quips that it's easier getting rockets into orbit than navigating his commute between home in Bel-Air and his Space Exploration Technologies factory in Hawthorne. "The 405 … varies from bad to horrendous," said Musk, who also co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors. "It just seems people in Los Angeles are being tortured by this. … I don't know why they aren't marching in the streets. " The massive project to widen the 405 Freeway is not only causing traffic nightmares for motorists like Musk but has also been plagued by cost overruns and delays.

Tony Stark, alias Iron Man, is suave, brilliant, mega-rich and dripping with beautiful women. Sounds an awful lot like Elon Musk, the South African entrepreneurial wunderkind who spent his Tuesday shooting a rocket into space and making a major advance in electric vehicles. The 40-year-old served as an inspiration for the fictional genius billionaire in the "Iron Man"movies, according to director Jon Favreau. Musk even makes a cameo in one of the films. But the comparisons are really getting some traction now, with the comic book character playing a pivotal role in the blockbuster "The Avengers" at the same time that Musk kicks two of his grandest ventures into high gear.

AUSTIN -- Elon Musk says if mankind doesn't make it to Mars by the time he dies, it'll be the biggest disappointment of his life. Speaking to a packed crowd of several thousand attendees at South by Southwest on Saturday, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX said he might even consider making the journey himself.  "I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact," he said. For now, he's been focusing his attention on something a bit closer to home. Musk revealed to the crowd that SpaceX is one step closer to developing a reusable rocket, saying the company recently launched a 10-story rocket that  burst into the sky, rose 262.8 feet, hovered and landed safely on the pad 34 seconds later using thrust vector and throttle control.

In his native South Africa, science whiz Elon Musk struck his first business deal when he made $500 selling the code for a "Space Invaders"-style video game he invented. He was 12. It took only another decade or so for him to make some real money: By age 23 Musk had his first significant company in Web software maker Zip2. He banked $22 million when he sold it in 1999 to Compaq Computer. And last year, he pocketed about $150 million in EBay Inc.

Elon Musk quips that it's easier getting rockets into orbit than navigating his commute between home in Bel-Air and his Space Exploration Technologies factory in Hawthorne. "The 405 … varies from bad to horrendous," said Musk, who also co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors. "It just seems people in Los Angeles are being tortured by this. … I don't know why they aren't marching in the streets. " The massive project to widen the 405 Freeway is not only causing traffic nightmares for motorists like Musk but has also been plagued by cost overruns and delays.

Tesla sales of its Model S electric sedan have exceeded the target that the Palo Alto-based automaker set in February, giving it enough of a boost to claim its first quarterly profit. Tesla has sold 4,750 Model S cars or about 250 more than the February target. The better than expected sales allowed Tesla to predict "full profitability" in an amendment to its guidance for first-quarter performance. After Tesla had reported a loss of $75 million in the fourth quarter, observers had expressed concerns about the automaker's ability to quickly churn out enough electric vehicles to sustain it in the long term.

Re "Tesla drives state credits to the bank," May 6 Tesla Motors is an example of an innovative, homegrown California industry. It is building ultra-clean cars and providing employment for 2,800 people in a formerly abandoned car factory. This success is not being subsidized by other car companies. Car manufacturers are not required to purchase credits (which Tesla can sell to its competitors), nor does the state's Air Resources Board establish a price. The credits are entirely an opportunity to provide additional flexibility to car manufacturers to comply with a program whose ultimate goal is to support the commercialization of cutting-edge clean technology vehicles, and ensure that we get as many of them as possible on our roads and highways as fast as possible.

Guests at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Hollywood on Wednesday were told that the dress code was "creative black tie. " That left a lot of fashion running room, and the musical crowd turned up in such attire as evening gowns and black jeans, Ellen Olivier of Society News L.A. reports. RaeLynn of "The Voice" wore a fun cocktail dress with corset by designers Ani & Ari. [Society News L.A.] Adidas, which helps sponsor the Boston Marathon, has unveiled a limited edition T-shirt that will be sold to benefit the One Fund Boston , established to help people affected by the bombings on Monday.

Fiction writers don't often get credit for their influence on the world -- it is often invisible and unheralded. But among those on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, released Thursday, were two surprising names: short story maven George Saunders and novelist Hilary Mantel.  They keep company with "Leaders," (President Obama, Wayne LaPierre, Kim Jong Un), "Titans" (Jay-Z, LeBron James, Elon Musk) and "Icons" (Malala Yousafzai, Lena Dunham, Gabrielle Giffords)

Satellite broadcaster Dish Network Corp. has made a $25.5-billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp. If consummated, the deal would combine one of the nation's biggest pay-TV providers with the third-largest wireless communications company. The unsolicited Dish offer, which was announced Monday morning, is aimed at derailing Sprint's plans to merge with Japan's SoftBank Corp, a proposed deal valued at $20 billion. The Dish offer is made up of $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in Dish stock.

The Producers Guild of America honored nine people for their contributions to the advancement of digital entertainment and storytelling in an event held in the Bel Air mansion of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The Digital VIP awards celebration attracted some Hollywood notables, including Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and Bill Westenhofer, the visual effects supervisor whose team at Rhythm & Hues won an Academy Award this year for work on "Life of Pi. " But it was an acrobat dubbed "Champagne Girl" who arguably received the most of the attention at Thursday's night celebration, dangling upside-down from a chandelier and pouring bubbly as the 100 or so guests snapped photos.  Indeed, the whole event had the atmospherics of a Baz Luhrmann film.

Tesla sales of its Model S electric sedan have exceeded the target that the Palo Alto-based automaker set in February, giving it enough of a boost to claim its first quarterly profit. Tesla has sold 4,750 Model S cars or about 250 more than the February target. The better than expected sales allowed Tesla to predict "full profitability" in an amendment to its guidance for first-quarter performance. After Tesla had reported a loss of $75 million in the fourth quarter, observers had expressed concerns about the automaker's ability to quickly churn out enough electric vehicles to sustain it in the long term.

No stranger to leveraging his Twitter presence to maximize attention for his electric car company, Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk sent his company's stock up 2.5% on Monday with a single, cryptic tweet. "Really exciting @TeslaMotors announcement coming on Thursday. Am going to put my money where my mouth is in v major way," Musk tweeted . The markets noticed, sending Tesla shares up 91 cents to close at $37.53. Tesla shares are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Just what Musk has up his sleeve remains a mystery.

A private rocket company has blamed a design error for its latest failure to reach orbit. SpaceX said its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket separated as planned on its way to space, but residual thrust after engine cutoff caused the first stage to fall back and hit the second stage. The company says it can easily fix the problem. Saturday's failed launch was the third miss for SpaceX, which hopes to break into the low-cost space launch business. The company was founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.

The Producers Guild of America honored nine people for their contributions to the advancement of digital entertainment and storytelling in an event held in the Bel Air mansion of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The Digital VIP awards celebration attracted some Hollywood notables, including Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter, Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman and Bill Westenhofer, the visual effects supervisor whose team at Rhythm & Hues won an Academy Award this year for work on "Life of Pi. " But it was an acrobat dubbed "Champagne Girl" who arguably received the most of the attention at Thursday's night celebration, dangling upside-down from a chandelier and pouring bubbly as the 100 or so guests snapped photos.  Indeed, the whole event had the atmospherics of a Baz Luhrmann film.

AUSTIN -- Elon Musk says if mankind doesn't make it to Mars by the time he dies, it'll be the biggest disappointment of his life. Speaking to a packed crowd of several thousand attendees at South by Southwest on Saturday, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX said he might even consider making the journey himself.  "I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact," he said. For now, he's been focusing his attention on something a bit closer to home. Musk revealed to the crowd that SpaceX is one step closer to developing a reusable rocket, saying the company recently launched a 10-story rocket that  burst into the sky, rose 262.8 feet, hovered and landed safely on the pad 34 seconds later using thrust vector and throttle control.

This post has been corrected and updated, as indicated below. New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan on Monday weighed in on what is probably one of the most widely read -- and hotly disputed -- electric car stories in recent memory. John M. Broder's dramatically headlined Feb. 8 article -- " Stalled Out on Tesla's Electric Highway" -- told the tale of how the high performance car ran out of juice and had to be hauled away on a flatbed truck. Tesla's chief executive, Elon Musk, charged that the story was faked and that the car could have gotten much better range, citing point-by-point findings from the car's black box data event recorder.