Today's Birthday 28/6 - Mandurah Mail

Today's Birthday, June 28: South African-born inventor Elon Musk (1971- )

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has caused a huge stir at a Tasmanian boat builder with a single post on social media.

Musk recently revealed on Twitter his aerospace company "is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, Moon and hypersonic travel around Earth" and will need to ferry people to and from the ocean launch pads.

He suggested using Hobart-based shipbuilder Incat, known for its high-speed ferries.

"This one little tweet has got everyone talking," Incat chief executive Tim Burnell told ABC Radio. "Even if nothing comes of it, it's very flattering for him to mention us."

The son of a model and an electromechanical engineer, Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria in South Africa.

Into computing from an early age, he sold a space-themed game, Blastar, for $US500 when he was 12.

Musk attended the prestigious Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Pretoria Boys High School before moving to Canada, where his mother was born, in 1989.

At 19, he started studying at Queen's University in Ontario then moved to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.

Armed with degrees in physics and economics, he began a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions.

That same year Musk and his brother Kimbal started web software company Zip2, which created online city guides for newspapers. It was acquired by Compaq in 1999 and Musk received over $US20 million for the deal.

Half of that went into cofounding X.com, an online financial services and email payment company that merged with Confinity, which had money transfer service PayPal. Musk made over $US150 million from the sale of PayPal to eBay in 2002.

In 2001, Musk started SpaceX, which launched its own designed and built rocket carrying two American astronauts to the International Space Station in May this year, a first for a private company.

Musk joined electric car maker Tesla in 2003 and remains CEO of both companies, with a stated vision to change the world and humanity by reducing global warming and the risk of human extinction.

Musk and Canadian musician Claire Boucher, known as Grimes, had a son in May.

Australian Associated Press

Today's Birthday 28/6 - Mandurah Mail

Posted by parceline on

Saturday, June 27, 2020

Today's Birthday, June 28: South African-born inventor Elon Musk (1971- ) SpaceX founder Elon Musk has caused a huge stir at a Tasmanian boat builder with a single post on social media. Musk recently revealed on Twitter his aerospace company "is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports for Mars, Moon and hypersonic travel around Earth" and will need to ferry people to and from the ocean launch pads. He suggested using Hobart-based shipbuilder Incat, known for its high-speed ferries. "This one little tweet has got everyone talking," Incat chief executive Tim Burnell told ABC Radio. "Even if nothing comes of it, it's very flattering for him to mention us." The son of a model and an electromechanical engineer, Elon Reeve Musk was born in Pretoria in South Africa. Into computing from an early age, he sold a space-themed game, Blastar, for $US500 when he was 12. Musk attended the prestigious Waterkloof House Preparatory School and Pretoria Boys High School before moving to Canada, where his mother was born, in 1989. At 19, he started studying at Queen's University in Ontario then moved to the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Armed with degrees in physics and economics, he began a PhD in applied physics at Stanford University in 1995 but dropped out after two days to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. That same year Musk and his brother Kimbal started web software company Zip2, which created online city guides for newspapers. It was acquired by Compaq in 1999 and Musk received over $US20 million for the deal. Half of that went into cofounding X.com, an online financial services and email payment company that merged with Confinity, which had money transfer service PayPal. Musk made over $US150 million from the sale of PayPal to eBay in 2002. In 2001, Musk started SpaceX, which launched its own designed and built rocket carrying two American astronauts to the International Space Station in May this year, a first for a private company. Musk joined electric car maker Tesla in 2003 and remains CEO of both companies, with a stated vision to change the world and humanity by reducing global warming and the risk of human extinction. Musk and Canadian musician Claire Boucher, known as Grimes, had a son in May. Australian Associated Press