Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, Helpful resources 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 likewise among the first considerable investors in, as well as president of, the electric automobile maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. 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 produced a computer game and sold it to a computer Click here! system publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he looked for the greater economic chances offered in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced the successor 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 Find out more would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for providing quick 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 carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely recyclable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had 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 relabelled Tesla), an electrical car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.