Elon Musk has conquered blank space , galvanising cars , and our hearts . But he could n’t have done it without a piece of help on the elbow room – and that ’s never been highlighted well than by his old parole .

Over the weekend his company SpaceX set in motion theirlatest rocket , the Block 5 discrepancy of their Falcon 9 – bill byArsTechnicaas the “ end of the beginning ” . And in a press call with newsman , he revealed an interesting little tidbit of information .

“ NASA has been an awing cooperator for us , ” he said . “ I love NASA so much that literally my password was ‘ ILoveNASA ’ .

“ Just like a champion that really cares , they can be a pain in the shag , but I love NASA so much . ”

AsMashablepoints out , this is n’t thefirst timeMusk has revealed this insight into his younger self . But it is a nice little reminder of how big a part NASA has played in his and SpaceX ’s success .

Back in 2008 his fledgling SpaceX ship’s company was fight . With three failed launches of its Falcon 1 rocket salad , the company was on the brink of bankruptcy .

But then , on September 28 , amiracle(and a lot of hard body of work ) happened as the fourth launch of the Falcon 1 was a achiever . Musk saidearlier this yearSpaceX come through “ by the skin of its teeth ” .

From there , things improved dramatically . SpaceX get ahead a numeral of launch contracts with NASA , and by 2012 it had received up to$500 millionfrom the bureau in progress payments . As of today , that figure of speech has risen well into thebillions .

SpaceX is now one of two companies – the other being Boeing – exploit on acrewed capsulefor NASA , expected to plunge by 2019 at the earliest . And last calendar month it launched its first dedicated skill mission for NASA , theTESS exoplanet hunter .

The family relationship has not always been rosy-cheeked . Musk has bemoan NASA for not having more human geographic expedition missionary station and criticized theircostly contract . On the flip side Lisa Pratt , NASA ’s wandering tribute military officer , wasnot too happyhe sent his Tesla Roadster into space .

They may not have always see eye to eye , but it ’s fair to say SpaceX would not be where it is today without NASA ’s help . For that reason alone , you could probably see why Musk chose the parole he did .