Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first commercial 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 firm Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the very first significant financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the greater financial chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company'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 first stage 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 offering fast transportation in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to test 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 membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.