Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first considerable investors in, along with chief executive officer of, the electrical car maker Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he looked for the higher economic chances offered 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 established Zip2, a business that supplied maps and business directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving cash 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 species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has 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 developed for providing quick transportation between cities in the world and developing 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 looked for to reduce the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
