Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric vehicle producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and since he looked for the greater economic chances available 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 founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for providing fast transportation in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as lots of 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 decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to test such technology. 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 unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.