Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the first considerable financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business 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 father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher economic chances readily 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 founded Zip2, a business that offered maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually revealed 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 developed for offering quick transportation between cities on Earth and building 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 decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a completely multiple-use rocket that might lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing 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 vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.