Elon Musk, (born June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa), American entrepreneur of South African origin who co-founded the electronic payment company PayPal and created SpaceXSpaceX, manufacturer of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also an early major investor in electric car maker Tesla, of which he served as CEO.
The beginnings of Elon Musk
Elon Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed early on a talent for IT and entrepreneurship. At 12, he created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, he left South Africa as he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the best economic opportunities available to the states.
PayPal et SpaceX
Elon Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and economics in 1995. He enrolled in graduate student in physics at Stanford University in California, but left after just two days because he believed the internet had much more potential to change society than work in physics. That year he founded Zip2, a company that provides maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999, Zip2 was acquired by computer maker Compaq for $307 million. Elon Musk went on to found an online financial services company, X.com, which later became PayPal, specialized in money transfer online. Online auction company eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Elon Musk has long believed that for life to survive, humanity must become a multiplanetary species. However, he was not satisfied with the great expense of the rocket launchers. In 2002, he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make rockets more affordable. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1 (first launched in 2006) and the larger Falcon 9 (first launched in 2010), which were designed to cost significantly less than competing rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kgkg) into orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Delta IV HeavyDelta IV Heavy from the Boeing Company, for a third of the cost.
SpaceX has also developed the Dragon spacecraft, which carries supplies to the International Space StationInternational Space Station and is designed to carry up to seven astronauts. Elon Musk sought to cut spaceflight expenses by developing a fully reusable rocket that could lift off and return to the platform from which it was launched. Beginning in 2012, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test this technology. In addition to being the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk was also the chief designer for the construction of the Falcon, Dragon and Grasshopper rockets. which carries supplies to the International Space StationInternational Space Station and is designed to carry up to seven astronautastronauts. Elon Musk sought to cut spaceflight expenses by developing a fully reusable rocket that could lift off and return to the platform from which it was launched.
Beginning in 2012, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test this technology. In addition to being the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk was also the chief designer for the construction of the Falcon, Dragon and Grasshopper rockets. which carries supplies to the International Space StationInternational Space Station and is designed to carry up to seven astronautastronauts. Elon Musk sought to cut spaceflight expenses by developing a fully reusable rocket that could lift off and return to the platform from which it was launched. Beginning in 2012, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test this technology. In addition to being the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk was also the chief designer for the construction of the Falcon, Dragon and Grasshopper rockets. where it was launched.
Beginning in 2012, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test this technology. In addition to being the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk was also the chief designer for the construction of the Falcon, Dragon and Grasshopper rockets. where it was launched. Beginning in 2012, SpaceX’s Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test this technology. In addition to being the CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk was also the chief designer for the construction of the Falcon, Dragon and Grasshopper rockets.
The Tesla Adventure
Elon Musk has long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became a major backer of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard. and Marc Tarpenning. In 2006, Tesla launched its first car, the Roadster, which could travel 394 km on a single charge. Unlike most previous electric vehicles, which Elon Musk deemed stodgy and uninteresting, this was a sports car that could go from 0 to 60 miles (97 km) per hour in less than four seconds. In 2010, the company’s IPO raised approximately $226 million. Two years later, Tesla launched the Model S sedan, which has been acclaimed by automotive critics for its performance and design. The company has also won acclaim for its Model X luxury SUV, which hit the market in 2015. The lower-cost Model 3 went into production in 2017.
Elon Musk has expressed reservations about Tesla going public, and in August 2018 sent out a series of tweets about taking the company private, noting that he had “secured funding”. The following month, the United States Securities Commission (SEC) sued him for stock market fraud, alleging the tweets were “false and misleading”. Soon after, Tesla’s board of directors rejected the SEC’s proposed settlement because Elon Musk had threatened to resign. However, the news sent Tesla shares plummeting, and a tougher deal was eventually agreed. Elon Musk stepped down as chairman for three years, but was allowed to stay on as CEO.
Dissatisfied with the projected cost ($68 billion) of a high-speed rail system in California, Elon Musk in 2013 proposed another, faster system, the Hyperloop, a pneumatic-pneumatic tube in which a gondola carrying 28 passengers would travel the 350 miles (560 km) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes at a top speed of 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, almost the speed of soundspeed of sound. He claimed that the HyperloopHyperloop would cost just $6 billion and that, with departures every two minutes on average, the system could accommodate the six million people who travel this route each year.
