Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first significant financiers in, along with primary executive officer of, the electric car maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic chances offered 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that provided maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transport 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 bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary 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 electric vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.