Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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 vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first considerable financiers in, along with ceo of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. 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 Take a look at the site here a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Helpful site Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher economic chances offered 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 company that supplied maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the 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 designed for offering fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring 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 totally recyclable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.