Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first business 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he sought the greater economic 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and company directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business'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 lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transportation in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.