Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, 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 https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elonmusk1/1/angel-investor-jeff-brown.html Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first considerable financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and since he looked for the greater financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 company that supplied maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humanity needs to become a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
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A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering quick transportation in between cities on Earth and developing 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 sought to minimize the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.