Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial 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 Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also among the first considerable investors in, as well as president of, the electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed 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 getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher economic 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest 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 first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transportation in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a fully reusable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.