Elon Musk (Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP)

Several state associations of auto dealers are invoking older laws protecting conventional methods of selling cars by claiming the way Tesla sells cars is unfair to other dealers and possibly even illegal. Here's one example out of several cited by Automotive News:

In Illinois, the Secretary of State's office told Tesla officials in a meeting on Sept. 28 that the EV manufacturer is breaking Illinois law by listing company founder and CEO Musk as the owner of its suburban Chicago store. Tesla officials said they would correct the problem and asked for 30 days to respond, said Jay Mesi, deputy director of the Secretary of State's Department of Administrative Hearings.

Tesla has said in every case it's working to comply with existing laws. The company also insists that it isn't trying to change the way the auto industry works, simply providing a special, product-focused customer experience.

The complaining dealerships should also probably remember that if their conflicts with Tesla's methods can't be resolved, Mr. Musk did just oversee the launch of a fiery Dragon into space.

Elon Musk in SpaceX Mission Control

Weather permitting, it looks like Elon Musk and his SpaceX aerospace startup will ride their Dragon cargo capsule into a shiny new era of private enterprise in space Sunday night, when Dragon is set to launch from Cape Canaveral on its first trip to the International Space Station (ISS).

The New York Times reports on Dragon's payload:

The rocket will lift a cargo-only capsule called Dragon that contains about 1,000 pounds of food, clothing, equipment and science experiments, including 23 designed and built by students. The goods would arrive on Wednesday, and the capsule would stay docked at the space station for a few weeks. “It actually marks the beginning of true commercial spaceflight to take cargo to the International Space Station for us,” Maj. Gen. Charles F. Bolden Jr., the NASA administrator, said during a video chat on Google Plus on Friday.

Dragon's launch time is set for 8:35 p.m. Eastern Time. If the weather holds (Accuweather predicts "patchy clouds"), then Elon Musk's path to taking humans to Mars by 2025 will be well underway.

Mr. Musk.

Fellow science fiction nerds, it's a new day. The space shuttle might be a relic, but that doesn't mean we're stuck here permanently. (Well, provided you've got some cash lying around.) After last weekend's none-too-impressive failure to launch, Elon Musk's ride to the stars finally made it into orbit this morning. The commercial spaceflight company's cargo ship, the Dragon, is now headed for the International Space Station. Your move, Facebook mafia.

Via the AP:

"Every launch into space is a thrilling event, but this one is especially exciting," said John Holdren, President Barack Obama's chief science adviser. "This expanded role for the private sector will free up more of NASA's resources to do what NASA does best — tackle the most demanding technological challenges in space, including those of human space flight beyond low Earth orbit."

Here's a video, taken this morning:

http://youtu.be/vgHz15bRMQQ

If his Twitter is any indication, Elon Musk is on cloud nine right now:

Falcon flew perfectly!! Dragon in orbit, comm locked and solar arrays active!! Feels like a giant weight just came off my back :)

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2012

Also, we would be lying if we said we didn't wish we could tweet this:

Navigation bay pointing to deep space and star map being generated by star tracker one. Yes! #DragonLaunch

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 22, 2012

Well, it's not going to make anyone immortal, but we hope this is a sufficiently impressive and science fictional achievement to impress Mr. Musk's fellow Paypal mafioso, Peter Thiel.