elon musk. has his own rockets. whether they are tipped with lasers, i do not know. [ laughter ] before we get started, business news after the top. ♪ >> breaking news on rick santorum dropping out -- [cheers and applause] >> jon: sure that's -- i'm stuck with the santorum dropping out -- well i can't do those jokes anymore. not just because of moral issue but we shredded all of them for god sakes. word of his departure came in the form of just in, standard modifier which discontinuing wishes in a temporal sense just in news from regular stale, run of the mill news. it's the only news modifier you need just temporal stuff. recently cnn would disagree. >> time now for the political pop. >> time now for the cnn political gut check. >> this time new for no talking points. >> checking stories across the country now. >> time for politics update. time for r andr not rest and relaxation but reynolds and randy time. >> jon: they believe the key is creating branded news segments within the news. [ laughter ] which brings us

elon musk put up $100 million of his own fortune and got investors to put up another $100 million.getting help with down payments from future customers like nasa adding hundreds of millions more. nasa, which means us are helping subsidize a private space company, which sounds crazy, but it's cheaper than nasa owning and operating everything. that's the argument a big test of spacex will come at mission control as it launches a rocket and space capsule from cape canaveral to carry supplies to the international space station. why has musk done better than other private investors so far? and why does he insist on spacex making all of his components apple? >> i'm primarily an engineer. i also have the financial side of things. so normally you have somebody who's a chief engineer and ceo and kind of different. my case it's the same. i can simplify the decision making. and i don't need to -- i only need to convince myself whether the decision is correct. i do think it's important to -- well, hesitate to use the word control, but to really ensure that the whole system is done right. >> wh

you'll see thefounder, elon muss being, when they launch supplies to the space station in a test. now musk his own money. nasa has so far handed over $400 million or $500 million on contracts plus up front money from customers. the key to success is reusing the equipment repeatedly, something the space shuttle did not do cost effectively. >> i think we could probably find flight dragon at least ten times. maybe some parts that need to be replaced. but i think the primary heat shield will be able to last something like ten flights. the engines even long er and th avionics 100 flights. the primary structure 1,000 flights. but we first have to convince our customers that they want to fly on a spacecraft that's been retrieved. but i think over time we'll be able to do that. >> reporter: so you have to be a used space capsule salesman? >> yeah. absolutely. >> reporter: to make this work. >> absolutely. if you think of any other mode of transport whether it's planes, trains, automobiles, bicycles, horses, they're all reusable. >> reporter: musk says spacex could go public by the end of next year

spacex found by elon musk, the writer of paypal sold to ebay for a billion dollars, and he was like 32 or something. one of these space billionaires who decides couple of space so much gimmies trying to now make his own spacecraft. just? >> how old are you? >> eight. >> eight, that is so cool. [applause] >> is the pastor bedtime? this is so past my bedtime. i don't know what today. go one. >> i want to go to mars but i was wondering -- [laughter] [applause] >> let the record show our age-old wants to go to mars unknown as yet as that of themselves. go ahead. >> and i was wondering what it would take to get their. >> you are the age right now of who we would -- in other words, when we go to mars, which i would like to think is the next couple of decades to you again become the age of those astronauts. so i am too old but i may be dead by then, but you, you will be just right. and so the earthlings who want to go to mars is just right for a jewel. so it's dangerous. you will be a long time away from home, so probably you will want to get, take some videos with you, you know, and some boo