Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the first significant financiers in, along with ceo of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic opportunities 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 offered maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by Browse this site the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, Click for more which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical 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 Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase 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 providing fast transportation in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive 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 significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.