Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business 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, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first significant financiers in, as well as president of, the electric vehicle maker 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 founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial 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 founded Zip2, a business that provided maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was Click here to find out more disappointed with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to bring 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 expense. Area, X has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing quick transportation in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many 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 lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.