Disappointed

In October 2001, Musk traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell, an aerospace supplies fixer, and Adeo Ressi, his best friend from college, to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles, a guided ballistic missile primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery but converted for space utilization, where it could send the envisioned payloads into space. The group met with companies such as NPO Lavochkin and Kosmotras. However, according to Cantrell, Musk was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the Russian chief designers. The group returned to the United States empty-handed.