Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial 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 firm Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the very first considerable investors in, as well as ceo of, the electrical vehicle producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the greater financial chances available 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 founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually announced the successor 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 providing quick transportation between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally reusable rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.