Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first substantial financiers in, along with ceo of, the electric car maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded 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 mother. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic opportunities Additional resources available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved 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 provided maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humanity has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was Click here for more dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Click here to find out more Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to check 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 special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.