Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first substantial financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed website an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial chances 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 degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that offered maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for supplying fast 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 sought to minimize the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely reusable rocket that might lift off and return to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.