The Mars Society is very pleased to announce that SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk will address the 15th Annual International Mars Society Convention in Pasadena, California, on Saturday, August 4th during the organization's evening banquet. 

Considered one of the world´s leading space pioneers and entrepreneurs, Mr. Musk will talk about his company´s role in furthering space exploration and his vision for the human exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.

The banquet keynote speaker will be renowned cosmologist J. Richard Gott.  Following Professor Gott´s talk, Mr. Musk will be presented with the Mars Society´s first Mars Pioneer Award, after which Mr. Musk will deliver his address.

At SpaceX, Mr. Musk is the CEO and chief designer, overseeing development of rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and ultimately to other planets.  The SpaceX Falcon 1 was the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit.  In 2010, SpaceX became the first commercial company to successfully recover a spacecraft from Earth orbit, with its Dragon spacecraft.  And this year, SpaceX´s Dragon became the first commercial vehicle to successfully attach to the International Space Station and return cargo to Earth.

In addition to SpaceX, Mr. Musk is the CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors.  Prior to SpaceX, Mr. Musk co-founded PayPal, the world’s leading Internet payment system, and served as the company’s Chairman and CEO.  Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2, a provider of Internet software to the media industry.  In addition, he has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a business degree from Wharton.

[Image: SpaceX]