Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial 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, Buddy and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first substantial investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher economic opportunities offered in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money 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, humankind needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying quick transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely recyclable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical car business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.