Mark Shuttleworth became a household name when the successful South African entrepreneur, now resident in London, became the second self-funded space tourist and the first South African in space on a flight aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 in April 2002, but few of us realise that another South African, now resident in Bel-Air, California, is persistently pioneering space and other frontiers and boldly going where no South Africa has gone before.
Elon Musk, best known for co-founding PayPal, the leading internet payment system, was born in Pretoria two years before Shuttleworth and has gone on to develop an affordable revolutionary electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, and as CEO and chief technician of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is developing rockets to take satellites and people into orbit around Earth and beyond.
Musk’s penchant for thinking big and achieving the seemingly impossible began early. At age 10 he bought his first computer and taught himself how to program. By age 12 the Thomas Edison fan had designed his own computer game, a variation on Space Invaders called Blaster which he sold to a computer magazine for USD 500.
At age 17 the Pretoria Boys High School matriculant left South Africa against the wishes of his parents largely to avoid military conscription in support of the Apartheid government and headed for North America. There he self-funded his studies, earning Bachelors degrees in both Economics and Physics from the University of Pennsylvania.
By the age of 27 the over 6 foot tall Musk had sold his four-year-old online publishing software company Zip2 to Compaq for USD 307mn plus USD 34mn in stock options.
The South African national then went on to co-found PayPal which was sold to eBay shortly after Shuttleworth’s trip into space for USD 1.5bn. At the time Musk was PayPal’s largest shareholder with 11.7% and earned enough to start his third company SpaceX and pursue his dreams of human colonisation of space.
Now at 39, Musk is aiming high – in fact 250 miles up, at the International Space Station – and beyond that to a human oasis on Mars, and could just be the very person to shrug off what we consider the impossible and change the world as we know it.
Prior to October this year California-based SpaceX had launched the Falcon 1 (F1) rocket 180 miles above Earth, further than any privately developed rocket, and on Oct 7, on only its fourth launch attempt, the F1 became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit around Earth. The next flight, carrying a Malaysian primary satellite and US government secondary satellite is schedule for March 2009 and the private rocket company aims to start shuttling people to the International Space Station by 2011.
SpaceX’s focus on affordable technology has seen the 525 employees develop a competitive launch vehicle in less time and for less money than would seem possible and is likely to provide stiff competition for the 150,000 employees at the USD 61.5bn Boeing plant. The company already boasts that it will launch satellites into space for a quarter of the cost of its competitors.
In addition to the space programme, Musk’s concern for the environment resulted in a USD 6.3mn investment which sees him as principal owner and chairman of the board at Tesla Motors which has built the first truly viable electric motor car.
Although Tesla initially focused on a sports car which sells for around USD 98,000 they also have plans to produce a family sedan in the region of USD 50,000 and a third model as more of a city run-around at USD 30,000.
In recent years Musk’s desire to combat global warming sees him also the primary investor and chairman of the successful solar panel installation company SolarCity.
Musk was awarded the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George Low Space Transportation Award in September this year for his contribution to the development of commercial space transportation systems using innovative low-cost approaches.
He might not be a household name, yet, but he ought to be. This maverick South African-born entrepreneur has a penchant for turning innovation into success and is boldly exploring frontiers that could revolutionise our world.
Musk has indicated that after the successful launch of the F1, the next goal is to launch the cargo carrying Falcon 9 (F9), as well as the F9 with crew Dragon and the F9 heavy… and then Musk’s sights are set, as they have been since his 2001, on a Mars landing. Musk had initially put plans to land an experimental greenhouse on the hot red planet on hold in order to reduce prohibitive launch costs – something he has recently achieved.
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