"We saw these enormous rockets, and I remember thinking 'that's just crazy stuff, I would never do something like that, that's nuts." Jurvetson says.

Jurvetson tells a story about the time he and his son pushed a rocket to Mach 2.5 — approximately 1,900 miles per hour — before a fin separated and caused a critical failure.

Jurvetson has long cultivated an interest space and spaceflight, and his office at DFJ's Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters is littered with Apollo-era NASA artifacts he's collected over the years.