Who is Elon Musk? And how is he important?

Elon Musk is an engineer, industrial designer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur. He is a citizen of South Africa, the United States (where he has lived most of his life and currently resides), and Canada.

He is important because Elon Musk founded SpaceX, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars.