Elon Musk - Biography, SpaceX, Tesla, & Facts
                     Elon Musk - Biography, SpaceX, Tesla, & 
Facts
Introduction
• Elon Musk, (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born 
American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm PayPal 
and formed SpaceX, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. 
Source: www.britannica.com
Early life
• Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He 
displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he 
created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine.
Source: www.britannica.com
Early life cont.
• In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because 
he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service 
and because he sought the greater economic opportunities available in the 
United States.
Source: www.britannica.com
Education
• Musk attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he 
transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he 
received bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
• He enrolled in graduate school in physics at Stanford University in 
California, but he left after only two days because he felt that the Internet 
had much more potential to change society than work in physics. 
Source: www.britannica.com
Space Exploration
• Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a 
multiplane species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of 
rocket launchers. 
• In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to make more 
affordable rockets.
Source: www.britannica.com
Paypal
• In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and business 
directories to online newspapers.
• In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 
million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, 
X.com, which later became PayPal, which specialized in transferring money 
online. The online auction eBay bought PayPal in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Source: www.britannica.com
SpaceX
• 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 much 
less than competing rockets. 
• A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to 
carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its 
largest competitor, the Boeing Company’s Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the 
cost. 
Source: www.britannica.com
Tesla
• Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 
2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed 
Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard 
and Marc Tarpenning. 
Source: www.britannica.com
Electric Vehicle
• In 2006 Tesla introduced its first car, the Roadster, which could travel 245 
miles (394 km) on a single charge. 
• Unlike most previous electric vehicles, which Musk thought were stodgy and 
uninteresting, it was a sports car that could go from 0 to 60 miles (97 km) 
per hour in less than four seconds.
Source: www.britannica.com
The Bottom Line
• Musk’s early interests in philosophy, science fiction, and fantasy novels are 
reflected in his sense of idealism and concern with human progress—and in 
his business career. 
• He works in the areas that he has identified as crucial to our future, 
specifically the Internet, the transition to renewable energy sources, and 
space colonization
Source: www.britannica.com
Thank You!