Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the first substantial investors in, along with primary executive officer of, the electric car manufacturer 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 founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial opportunities offered in the United States. Musk went to 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 company that offered maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually announced 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 developed for offering quick transport between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a fully multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.