Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport 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 Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, along with ceo of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he sought the higher economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transportation in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally reusable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.