Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the first considerable financiers in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electrical automobile maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater financial chances readily available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, which specialized in transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humankind needs to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for providing quick transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely reusable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.