Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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 also among the very first substantial investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant 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 skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In Look at more info 1988, Great post to read after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and since he looked for the greater financial chances available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed 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 successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first Article source stage would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering fast transport between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many 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 decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights Visit this page to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Extra resources Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical car business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.