Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first significant investors in, as well as president of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk went to 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 company that supplied maps click here and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very 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 created for supplying quick transport 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 looked for to minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.