Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he looked for the higher economic chances offered 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that supplied maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Pal, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest 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 very first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transport between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief 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 automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.