Elon Musk

Chapter 1 · 1971 – 1995 From Pretoria to Philadelphia

Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. As a young man he left alone for North America, convinced that was where great things could be done in technology.

An encyclopedia and a video game

He was the eldest of three children; his brother Kimbal and his sister Tosca followed. His mother, born in Canada, recalls him reading the Encyclopædia Britannica at about eight or nine. At twelve he wrote the code for a video game and sold it.

Leaving

He left South Africa on his own, against his parents’ wishes, to avoid being drafted into the apartheid-era army. His mother being Canadian, Canada opened a door. “I came to North America because I felt this was where there was opportunity to do great things in technology,” he would say.

Queen’s

After considering the University of Waterloo for physics and engineering, he spent his first two years of study at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He lived in Victoria Hall, on the International Floor, where he befriended Navaid Farooq, still a close friend. His brother Kimbal also studied at Queen’s. He says he learned there to solve problems together with smart people, and to lead a discussion in the manner of Socrates: through questions, until the group reaches the conclusion itself. Years later he would use that method to win over his first rocket engineers.

Penn and three problems

He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where in 1997 he earned two degrees: one in physics, the other in economics at the Wharton School. He studied business, he explains, to learn “how you put together a company” to tackle technology problems. It was at Penn, Wharton’s magazine reports, that he set himself three goals: to make the Internet an economic powerhouse, to bring about the shift to clean energy, and to explore space more deeply than ever before.

In 1995, at twenty-four, he was admitted to a doctoral program at Stanford University. He dropped out after two days to throw himself into the Internet.

Sources: R. Keats, “Rocket man,” Queen’s Alumni Review, Winter 2013 (born in 1971 in Pretoria, eldest of three, Kimbal and Tosca, Canadian-born mother, the Encyclopædia Britannica, the video game at twelve, leaving alone against his parents’ wishes to avoid the draft, “I came to North America because I felt this was where there was opportunity to do great things in technology,” Waterloo, Queen’s, Victoria Hall, Navaid Farooq, Kimbal at Queen’s, the Socratic method, Penn, Stanford dropped after two days at twenty-four in 1995); R. Preer, “He Won’t Back Down,” Wharton Magazine, Fall 2010 (1997 degrees, “how you put together a company,” the three goals); Tesla, Form 10-K/A filed with the SEC, 2026 (B.A. in physics from the University of Pennsylvania, B.S. in business from the Wharton School). We leave aside his family life except where it bears on his career.

Chapter 2 · 1995 – 2002 Zip2 and PayPal

In seven years, two Internet companies made Elon Musk a rich man. They also taught him that when you take investors’ money, you share power.

Zip2

In 1995 he founded Zip2 with his brother Kimbal. The company produced online city guides for newspapers; among others it signed the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times. He served, in turn or at once, as chairman, chief executive and chief technology officer until February 1999. Venture capitalists put in $3.6 million; in exchange, he gave up majority control of his company. In March 1999 Compaq bought Zip2 for $307 million in cash. For his seven percent he received $22 million. He was twenty-eight.

X.com

He reinvested at once. In March 1999 he founded X.com, an online bank, which he ran until December. Another young company, Confinity, co-founded in December 1998 by Peter Thiel, was developing a way to send money by e-mail. In March 2000 the two companies merged; the payment system took the name PayPal. Elon Musk ran PayPal from May to September 2000; Peter Thiel then succeeded him as chief executive. Musk stayed on as a director and shareholder.

In October 2002 eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. Elon Musk netted $165 million in eBay stock. He was thirty-one. A few months earlier, he had already founded a rocket company.

Sources: PayPal, Form S-1 filed with the SEC, June 2002 (Zip2 co-founded in 1995, roles until February 1999; X.com founded in March 1999, CEO from March to December 1999; Confinity co-founded in December 1998 by Peter Thiel; merger in March 2000; PayPal CEO from May to September 2000; Peter Thiel CEO since September 2000; Musk a director since March 1999); R. Keats, “Rocket man,” Queen’s Alumni Review, Winter 2013 (the city guides, the Chicago Tribune and The New York Times, $3.6 million, giving up majority control, $307 million, $22 million for 7%, twenty-eight, the online bank, $1.5 billion, $165 million in eBay stock); Tesla, Form 10-K/A, 2026 (Compaq’s acquisition of Zip2 in March 1999, eBay’s acquisition of PayPal in October 2002).

Chapter 3 · 2002 – 2006 A rocket company to go to Mars

In 2002 Elon Musk did not know how to build a rocket. Yet he created a company to make them, with a purpose stated from the start: to make the journey to Mars possible.

A feasibility study, on weekends

To find out whether it was possible to do better than existing rockets, he approached engineers from Northrop Grumman, Boeing and other aerospace firms. He did not ask them to quit their jobs: he offered to pay them a decent amount to spend a few evenings and weekends on a feasibility study. Over a series of meetings they concluded that better rockets could be built. He says he ran those discussions as a Socratic dialogue: “I essentially led them to a conclusion that they created.” He accepted the idea of losing the money he put in: the cause, he says, was important enough that it was worth putting funds at risk and possibly losing them.

The first ones

Space Exploration Technologies, SpaceX, was founded in early 2002. Elon Musk has been its chief executive, chief technical officer and chairman since May 2002. He set up in Los Angeles, home to the big historic aerospace companies. A first core formed around him: Chris Thompson, Tom Mueller, a propulsion specialist, then Hans Koenigsmann, an engineer he had met at a rocket launch in the Mojave Desert. Tim Buzza, a test specialist, arrived in August 2002; he was employee number five. Gwynne Shotwell joined the same year to sell launches. Engine tests took place in Texas, at McGregor, two hours from Dallas/Fort Worth airport. For Tim Buzza, Elon Musk is the “chief designer”: he, with the technical teams, set the size of the launcher, how much propellant it carries, the thrust of its engines.

“If our launcher were a car, it would be a compact”

In 2003 he laid out his plan to the Wharton School’s magazine. His first launcher, the Falcon, was to place half a ton in low Earth orbit. NASA’s best option, the Pegasus rocket, then cost $25 million; he wanted to build his for $7 million. Building a $22 million rocket just to undercut Pegasus would be pointless: “It doesn’t make sense to do something incremental.” He compared himself to Henry Ford: simplify and cheapen every step rather than reinvent everything.

The Falcon, he said, was a first step toward Mars. Cost remained the main obstacle for anyone wanting to go there; with cheaper launchers, NASA or a private company could take it on. He preferred Mars to the Moon: more minerals, a richer atmosphere, water in the permafrost, a gravity and an orbit closer to Earth’s. If humanity can go to Mars and beyond, that will matter more, historically, than anything done today. And he warned: “This is not about me going to Mars, like some play game.” He gave any venture he starts three criteria: that it be intrinsically interesting, commercially viable, and have a meaningfully positive effect on the world. He added: “rockets are fun.”

From Vandenberg to Kwajalein

Falcon 1 was built from off-the-shelf hardware: an Ethernet network linked its computers; an airbag was even borrowed from Elon Musk’s other company, Tesla. SpaceX first wanted to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the base made the young company wait behind other launches, then denied it access. Elon Musk looked for somewhere simpler, both on the regulatory side and for scheduling. That would be Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, a U.S. Army base in the middle of the Pacific, near the equator, which helps rockets. The team lived on Kwajalein and worked on Omelek Island, commuting by boat.

The first Falcon 1 lifted off in early 2006. It did not get far. Hans Koenigsmann would call the failure “heartbreaking”: a lot of people had worked a long time, and the rocket did not fly very far. “We learned a lot of things we did wrong, and learning sometimes hurts.”

Sources: R. Keats, “Rocket man,” Queen’s Alumni Review, Winter 2013 (engineers from Northrop Grumman and Boeing, the paid feasibility study, “I essentially led them to a conclusion that they created,” “an important enough cause,” “worth putting funds at risk and possibly losing them”); Tesla, Form 10-K/A, 2026 (SpaceX CEO, CTO and chairman since May 2002); NASA, Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office oral histories, January 15, 2013: G. Shotwell (founded in early 2002), H. Koenigsmann (meeting at Mojave, joining in 2002, Kwajalein and Omelek), T. Buzza (Chris Thompson, Tom Mueller, Elon Musk and Hans Koenigsmann, joining in August 2002 as employee number five, Los Angeles and aerospace, McGregor, Vandenberg and the refusal, “Elon Musk is our chief designer”), D. Giger (Vandenberg, regulatory simplicity, the equator, first launch in early 2006); NASA, “Gwynne Shotwell” page (joined in 2002); R. Strauss, “Planning the Next (Giant) Step,” Wharton Magazine, Winter 2003 (half a ton, Pegasus at $25 million, $7 million, $22 million, “It doesn’t make sense to do something incremental,” Henry Ford, “if our launcher were a car, it would be a compact,” Mars and the Moon, “This is not about me going to Mars, like some play game,” the three criteria, “rockets are fun”); NASA, SP-2014-617, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services: A New Era in Spaceflight, 2014 (Ethernet, the Tesla airbag, “heartbreaking,” “We learned a lot of things we did wrong, and learning sometimes hurts”). The “Mars Oasis” project, often cited as the starting point, is mentioned in none of the sources we could consult; we do not tell it.

Chapter 4 · 2006 – 2012 Surviving, then reaching the Space Station

Between 2006 and 2012, SpaceX went from a small company whose rockets failed to the first private company to resupply the International Space Station. A NASA program changed everything.

The COTS bet

In January 2006 NASA issued a request for proposals for its COTS program: it wanted private companies to develop vehicles able to carry cargo to the International Space Station, and would pay them only as they reached milestones set in advance. For SpaceX the stakes were vital. The company largely shut down to write its proposal, submitted around March 2006. In the negotiations, Gwynne Shotwell recalls, NASA focused half its attention on the business: who would the investors be, how much money did Elon have to invest, and what was he willing to put in? The other half was technical: could this very young, brash company do what it said?

On the day of the result, all the employees gathered in the lunchroom. Elon Musk, at the front, tried to look unhappy; Gwynne Shotwell, who knew, could tell he was acting. Then he announced the win, and the room went wild. The agreement, signed in August 2006, was worth $278 million, far more than anything the company had won until then. From the start, Elon Musk and NASA wanted the Dragon capsule to be able one day to carry humans. According to David Giger, half a dozen engineers met with Elon Musk every couple of days; he was deeply involved in the spacecraft’s architecture.

Three failures, then orbit

Falcon 1 failed three times. David Giger, one of the young engineers, would say he never once sensed, in Elon Musk or Gwynne Shotwell, the slightest despair or temptation to give up: they kept pressing, learned, and would get it right. The lesson the company drew fits in a phrase: “test as you fly.” Any difference between how you test a vehicle on the ground and how you fly it is where problems will appear. On September 28, 2008, from Kwajalein, the fourth Falcon 1 finally reached orbit. It was the first liquid-fueled rocket developed by a private company to do so.

2008 was also Tesla’s year. Elon Musk had sat on the board of the electric carmaker since April 2004; in 2007 the company had replaced most of its management team. In October 2008 he became its chief executive.

On December 23, 2008, only months after Falcon 1’s first success, NASA awarded SpaceX a Space Station resupply contract: twelve missions for $1.6 billion. Elon Musk then asked Gwynne Shotwell to become the company’s president.

Falcon 9 and Dragon

In April 2010 he showed President Barack Obama around SpaceX’s facilities at Cape Canaveral. On June 4, 2010, the first Falcon 9, powered by nine Merlin engines, launched successfully; Elon Musk was at the Cape for the launch. On December 8, 2010, the second Falcon 9 put the first Dragon capsule into orbit, and it returned to Earth and was recovered at sea: according to NASA, SpaceX thereby became the first commercial company in the United States to recover a spacecraft returning from orbit. This time Elon Musk had wanted to stay at mission control in Hawthorne. He reputedly named the capsule after the 1963 song “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” in response to those who doubted his company.

On May 22, 2012, a Falcon 9 launched Dragon toward the Station. On May 25 the approach ran into trouble: glint off the Japanese module fooled the thermal imagers, which no longer agreed with the lidars. An engineer called a retreat; the team fixed the software in flight, and the sensors converged. Dragon was berthed to the Station: the first time a private company had delivered cargo there. In Hawthorne about 1,500 people screamed, cried and hugged outside the control room. “We could not have started SpaceX, nor could we have reached this point without the help of NASA,” Elon Musk said. On June 13 he inspected the returned capsule with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at SpaceX’s Texas facility.

The COTS agreement cost far more than expected. SpaceX had thought it would invest about $105 million on top of NASA’s $278 million; in the end the company spent about $850 million, and NASA $396 million. Without the program, Gwynne Shotwell sums up, SpaceX might still be limping along trying to change the world, instead of running.

Sources: NASA, Commercial Crew & Cargo Program Office oral histories, January 15, 2013: G. Shotwell (the January 2006 request, the company largely shut down, March 2006, half the negotiations about the business, “how much money did Elon have to invest,” “this very young, brash company,” the lunchroom, $278 million, August 2006, the presidency after the CRS contract, Musk at the Cape in June 2010 and in Hawthorne in December 2010, the glint off the Japanese module, the retreat, the 1,500 people, $105, $850 and $396 million, “limping instead of running”), D. Giger (Dragon designed with humans in mind, the half-dozen engineers, involvement in the architecture, no despair, “test as you fly”); NASA, SP-2014-617, 2014 (Falcon 1’s first success on September 28, 2008 after three failures, CRS contract of December 23, 2008, $1.6 billion for twelve missions, Obama’s visit in April 2010, Falcon 9 on June 4, 2010 with nine Merlin engines, Dragon on December 8, 2010, “Puff, the Magic Dragon” (“reputedly”), launch of May 22, 2012, berthing on May 25, 2012, first private company to deliver cargo to the Station, “We could not have started SpaceX, nor could we have reached this point without the help of NASA,” the June 13, 2012 inspection with Charles Bolden); R. Preer, Wharton Magazine, Fall 2010 (first private liquid-fueled rocket in orbit, Tesla restarted in 2007 after replacing management); Tesla, Form 10-K/A, 2026 (board member since April 2004, CEO since October 2008).

Chapter 5 · 2012 – 2021 Astronauts, then the Moon

After cargo, humans. Dragon had been designed from the start to carry crews; on May 30, 2020, two NASA astronauts took their seats.

A public figure

In April 2012 Elon Musk signed the Giving Pledge, the commitment to eventually give away most of his fortune; he chairs the Musk Foundation, which supports science education, pediatric health and clean energy. He now held several roles at once: chief executive of Tesla and of SpaceX, chairman of SolarCity, a solar energy company, from 2006 until its acquisition by Tesla in November 2016. He also founded The Boring Company, which digs tunnels, and Neuralink, which develops brain-machine interfaces.

Demo-2

On Saturday, May 30, 2020, at 3:22 p.m. Eastern time, a Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the pad of the Apollo missions and the shuttles. On top, the Crew Dragon capsule carried NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley toward the International Space Station. It was the first time NASA astronauts had launched from American soil in a spacecraft built and operated by a private company. Elon Musk, SpaceX’s chief engineer, called it “a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX”: the result, he said, of roughly a hundred thousand people when you add up all the suppliers. Eighteen years had passed since SpaceX was founded.

Starship for the Moon

On April 16, 2021, NASA chose SpaceX to develop the lander that will set the next American astronauts down on the Moon, under the Artemis program: a $2.89 billion, firm-fixed-price, milestone-based contract. The lander is a version of Starship, SpaceX’s large spacecraft, with a spacious cabin and two airlocks for moonwalks. According to NASA, the Starship architecture is intended to evolve into a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars and other destinations.

Sources: R. Keats, “Rocket man,” Queen’s Alumni Review, Winter 2013 (Giving Pledge in April 2012, the Musk Foundation and its fields); Tesla, Form 10-K/A, 2026 (SolarCity from July 2006 to November 2016, The Boring Company, Neuralink); NASA, “NASA Astronauts Launch from America in Historic Test Flight of SpaceX Crew Dragon,” May 30, 2020 (3:22 p.m., Launch Complex 39A, Behnken and Hurley, the first, “This is a dream come true for me and everyone at SpaceX,” “a hundred thousand people roughly”); SpaceX, “Launches” page (Launch Complex 39A, home of Apollo and the shuttle); NASA, “As Artemis Moves Forward, NASA Picks SpaceX to Land Next Americans on Moon,” April 16, 2021 ($2.89 billion, fixed price and milestones, cabin and two airlocks, evolution toward a reusable system for the Moon and Mars); NASA, SP-2014-617 (Dragon designed from the start with humans in mind).

Chapter 6 · 2021 – 2026 Starship and the Martian city

Twenty-four years after SpaceX was founded, Mars has not been reached. But the ship designed to go there is flying, farther and farther, from South Texas.

The largest launcher ever built

Starship combines a first stage, Super Heavy, and a ship, Starship, both designed to be fully reusable. SpaceX presents it as the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, able to carry more than 100 metric tons to orbit. It was designed from the beginning to run on liquid methane and oxygen, resources that can be mined and refined on Mars. It is built, tested and launched at Starbase, Texas.

On March 14, 2024, on its third integrated flight test, Super Heavy lifted off on its 33 Raptor engines; the ship separated by lighting its six engines, reached its expected orbit and completed a demonstration of propellant transfer between its internal tanks, a step toward the in-orbit refilling that distant missions depend on. On July 24, 2026, on the thirteenth flight, a new version of the stack deployed twenty Starlink satellites, relit an engine in space, then the ship re-entered the atmosphere and made a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, intact. The fourteenth flight took place on September 28, 2026.

What SpaceX announces for Mars

On its website, in 2026, SpaceX describes the goal: a self-sufficient city on Mars will require upwards of one million people and millions of tons of cargo. Launch windows to Mars open only about every twenty-six months; it will take more than ten launches a day during those windows and, ultimately, several thousand Starships. The ship will enter the Martian atmosphere at 7.5 kilometers per second. The company offers cargo flights to the Martian surface starting “no earlier than 2028,” at $100 million per metric ton. The first humans will have to survey resources, prepare landing surfaces, set up power generation and build habitats. These are announcements and goals, not results.

An empire of companies

His other activities have multiplied. Since October 2022, after the purchase of Twitter, he has been chief technology officer and a director of X Corp. Since March 2023 he has run xAI, an artificial intelligence company. X and xAI merged in March 2025, and the resulting company became a SpaceX subsidiary in February 2026. He remains chief executive of Tesla, of which he is the largest shareholder.

Sources: SpaceX, “Mission: Mars” page, consulted October 10, 2026 (one million people, millions of tons, more than ten launches a day, twenty-six months, several thousand Starships, 7.5 km/s, “no earlier than 2028,” $100 million per metric ton, the first humans, methane and oxygen, more than 100 tons, fully reusable system, the most powerful ever developed); SpaceX, “Launches” page, consulted October 10, 2026 (Starbase, Flight 14 on September 28, 2026); NASA, “NASA Artemis Mission Progresses with SpaceX Starship Test Flight,” March 14, 2024 (third integrated flight, 33 engines, six engines, hot staging, expected orbit, propellant transfer); SpaceX, “Starship’s Thirteenth Flight Test,” July 24, 2026 (twenty Starlink V3 satellites, engine relight, intact splashdown in the Indian Ocean); Tesla, Form 10-K/A, 2026 (X Corp since October 2022, xAI since March 2023, March 2025 merger, SpaceX subsidiary in February 2026, largest Tesla shareholder). We leave aside his political positions and roles, which are not part of the history of Mars.