Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Questions, 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 Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. 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 created a video 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 since he looked for the greater economic opportunities readily available 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 got bachelor's Browse around this site degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first 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 expense. Area, X has actually revealed the successor 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 offering quick transportation in 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 carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.