Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first business 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 company Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first considerable investors in, in addition to president of, the electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial chances 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, mankind needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering fast transport between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to minimize the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a completely reusable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.