Video released by spacecraft Additional reading maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became 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, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also among the first substantial investors in, as well as president of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. 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 a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher 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 elon musk wife Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that offered maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, mankind needs to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as elon musk spouse its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually announced the successor 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 designed for providing fast transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry 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 decrease the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could lift off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in building 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 in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical vehicle company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.