Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also among the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial chances readily available 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 established Zip2, a business that provided maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which specialized in 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 endure, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest competitor, 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 The original source 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 created for supplying fast transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many 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 reduce the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely recyclable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to check Additional info such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric car business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.