When I was six years old on July 20, 1969, I was on my grandfather’s yacht on the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York. On that day the adults around me were displaying such excitement that it left an indelible impression on me; they were celebrating that Apollo 11 had delivered Neil Armstrong for a walk on the moon. We were gathered around a small black & white TV on the rear deck and someone made sure to tell me to pay attention because this was the first time anyone had ever walked on the moon.

Almost 50 years later I’m watching as an entrepreneur named Elon Musk born in South Africa launches one of his electric cars into space from Florida. Today is the first time in my life that I’ve been witness to seeing the reflection of our planet on the windshield of a car. All of this was done while the David Bowie song “Starman” played accompaniment to a journey that will see this extraordinary new kind of satellite travel in orbit around our sun on a billion-year road trip.

I’m overwhelmed with emotion and dumbstruck at the magnitude of the rare individual’s ability to do the seemingly impossible and to be dignified and elegant about it too.