Video released 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical car manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon 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 became the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher financial chances offered 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that supplied maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humanity has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 providing fast transport in between cities on Earth and developing 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 reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Informative post Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous short flights to check such innovation. 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 special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.