Tom Mueller worked for Elon Musk at SpaceX for almost 20 years: 'I learned never to tell him no'

Tom Mueller grew up just 100 miles from the border of Canada in rural Idaho .

He started building rockets aged 14 and became SpaceX's propulsion chief in 2002 .

Now runs his own company, Impulse Space , and is trying to beat Musk in the race to Mars .

In May 2014 he became CTO of the propulsion development of the Merlin engine that powers the Falcon 9 rocket and Draco engines.

Mueller left SpaceX in late 2020 and founded his own company, Impulse Space .

The company is building spacecraft that can deliver multiple payloads to unique orbits from a single launch.

If they succeed, Mueller will be part of the team that beats Musk to his goal of being the first to reach Mars .