For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl." Of the launch, Musk was quoted as saying, "I feel very lucky. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1,000 pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station. On May 22, 2012, Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. By 2008, SpaceX was well established, and NASA awarded the company the contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station-with plans for astronaut transport in the future-in a move to replace NASA’s own space shuttle missions.Įlon Musk poses for a portrait in Los Angeles, California, on July 25, 2008. Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in 2002 with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock. In October 2002, Musk earned his first billion when PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock. An X.com acquisition the following year led to the creation of PayPal as it is known today. In 1999, Elon and Kimbal Musk used the money from their sale of Zip2 to found X.com, an online financial services/payments company. In 1999, a division of Compaq Computer Corporation bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash and $34 million in stock options. An online city guide, Zip2 was soon providing content for the new websites of both The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Musk launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in 1995 with his brother, Kimbal Musk. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation in 1995. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed for a second bachelor’s degree in physics.Īfter leaving Penn, Musk headed to Stanford University in California to pursue a PhD in energy physics. In 1992, Musk left Canada to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. Musk obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain American citizenship via that path. EducationĪt age 17, in 1989, Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University and avoid mandatory service in the South African military. Musk spent his early childhood with his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca in South Africa. Musk’s father, Errol Musk, is a wealthy South African engineer. When Musk was growing up, she worked five jobs at one point to support her family. Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, is a Canadian model and the oldest woman to star in a Covergirl campaign. He was bullied until he was 15 and went through a growth spurt and learned how to defend himself with karate and wrestling. In grade school, Musk was short, introverted and bookish. He taught himself how to program, and when he was 12 he sold his first software: a game he created called Blastar. As a child, Musk was so lost in his daydreams about inventions that his parents and doctors ordered a test to check his hearing.Īt about the time of his parents’ divorce, when he was 10, Musk developed an interest in computers. Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. In January 2021, Musk reportedly surpassed Jeff Bezos as the wealthiest man in the world. He bolstered his portfolio with the purchase of SolarCity in 2016 and cemented his standing as a leader of industry by taking on an advisory role in the early days of President Donald Trump's administration. Musk made headlines in May 2012, when SpaceX launched a rocket that would send the first commercial vehicle to the International Space Station. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 (which later became PayPal), SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003.
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