Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first substantial investors in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and because he looked for the greater economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred 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 supplied maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering fast transportation in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely reusable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical car company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.