Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant investors in, along with primary executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through obligatory military service and because he sought the higher financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity needs to become a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.