Elon Musk discovered a love for computers when he turned 10 years old. Musk, then 12, created the game blaster and sold it to magazine for $500. He studied economics as well as physics at University of Pennsylvania. Musk and Kimbal began zip2, a startup that provides online city guides in addition to newspaper articles, with $28,000 borrowed from his father. Musk made $22 million when zip2 was sold by Musk to Compaq in 1999 for $307 Million. He invested over half of his earnings to cofound X.com. This online bank service allows customers to access their banking information. PayPal emerged as the dominant shareholder after it merged with another company.
Musk created the idea of a Mars-sized greenhouse in 2001. eBay purchased PayPal in 2002. Musk took home $180 million. Musk traveled from Russia to buy ICBMs for Mars colony. Musk was not happy with the price of the Russian rocket. Musk even mocked them by saying that they didn’t have enough money. This company could make the rockets he wanted at an affordable price. Musk estimated that rocket building materials were only 3 per cent of rocket sales prices at the time.
SpaceX could save a significant amount on launch costs and still make a profit of 70%. SpaceX was founded by Musk in May 2002 with the goal of building commercial spacecraft. SpaceX’s initial rocket crashed into the ground in 36 seconds following lift-off. Both the second and third chances to build company credibility in 2007 and 2008 ended in failure. The company almost died after the 3rd failure. Musk was able to launch the fourth launch with money he had. 28 September 2008. The fourth falcon 1 rocket was successfully launched and reached earth orbit.
History was made when Falcon 1 became a privately developed liquid fuel rocket capable of orbiting the Earth. SpaceX was awarded a $1.6B dollar contract by NASA to transport cargo for the International Space Station. SpaceX also plans to transport astronauts. SpaceX will replace NASA’s existing space shuttle missions. SpaceX revealed its plans to develop a reusable launch vehicle in 2011, publicly. SpaceX has had few failed attempts.
SpaceX successfully landed a first-stage rocket and was able to recover it in December 2015. SpaceX brought back the first stage by landing it on the ocean floor in March 2017. Rockets are built to be able to reenter, but they can also land on Earth and fly again. Musk believes that a fully-reusable rocket would be a great way to lower the cost for space travel. Musk also wants to build a city there in the future.
