Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 among the very first significant financiers in, in addition to president of, the electrical vehicle producer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he looked for the greater financial opportunities offered 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more economical rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transport in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring 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 expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to check such technology. 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 subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.