Mark Shuttleworth Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Mark Shuttleworth
Shuttleworth in Dublin, 2011
Born	Mark Richard Shuttleworth (1973-09-18) 18 September 1973 (age 51) Welkom, Orange Free State, South Africa
Nationality	South African and British
Occupation	Entrepreneur

Space career
Space Adventures Tourist
Time in space	9d 21h 25m
Missions	Soyuz TM-34/TM-33
Mission insignia

Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British businessman. He is famous for starting Canonical Ltd., the company that created the Ubuntu computer operating system.

In 2002, Mark Shuttleworth became the first person from Africa to travel into space. He went as a space tourist. Today, he lives on the Isle of Man and has citizenship in both South Africa and the United Kingdom. In 2020, he was estimated to be worth about £500 million.

Early Life and Education
Building Businesses
Working with Linux and Free Software
Journey to Space
Images for kids
See also

Early Life and Education

Mark Shuttleworth was born in Welkom, Free State, South Africa. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a nursery-school teacher.

He went to Western Province Preparatory School and later to Bishops/Diocesan College. He was the Head Boy at both schools. Mark then studied Finance and Information Systems at the University of Cape Town. While he was a student, he helped set up the first internet connections for students living at the university.

Building Businesses

In 1995, Mark Shuttleworth started his first company, Thawte Consulting. This company focused on digital certificates and keeping the internet safe. In 1999, he sold Thawte to another company called VeriSign. This sale made him a lot of money, about R3.5 billion (which was around US$575 million at the time).

After that, in 2000, he created HBD Venture Capital. This company helped new businesses grow and provided them with money. Later, in 2004, he started Canonical Ltd.. This company helps promote and support free software projects, especially the Ubuntu operating system.

Mark stepped down as CEO of Canonical in 2009, but he returned to lead the company again in 2017.

Working with Linux and Free Software

Mark Shuttleworth speaking in 2009

In the 1990s, Mark Shuttleworth was part of the team that developed the Debian operating system.

In 2001, he started the Shuttleworth Foundation. This is a non-profit group that supports new ideas for social good. It also helps fund educational and free and open-source software projects in South Africa. One example is the Freedom Toaster.

In 2004, he went back to working with free software. He used his company, Canonical Ltd., to fund the creation of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a type of Linux operating system that is based on Debian.

In 2005, he started the Ubuntu Foundation and put $10 million into it. In the Ubuntu project, people sometimes jokingly call him the "Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life" (SABDFL). To find people to hire for the Ubuntu project, Mark took six months of old Debian emails with him on a trip to Antarctica in 2004.

Mark Shuttleworth also supported KDE, another important free software project, for several years.

Journey to Space

Mark Shuttleworth on board the International Space Station

Mark Shuttleworth became famous worldwide on 25 April 2002. He was the second person to pay for his own trip to space, after Dennis Tito. He was also the first South African in space.

He flew on a Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission. He paid about US$20 million for this amazing trip. Two days later, his Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station. He spent eight days there. During his time in space, he took part in science experiments.

On 5 May 2002, he returned to Earth on another Soyuz spacecraft. To get ready for his space journey, Mark had to train for a whole year. This included seven months of training in Star City, Russia.

While he was in space, he spoke to Thabo Mbeki, who was the president of South Africa at the time. This video call was part of the Freedom Day celebrations. He also had a radio chat with Nelson Mandela and a 14-year-old South African girl named Michelle Foster.