Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being 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 Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first significant investors in, along with chief executive officer of, the electric cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher financial chances available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 offered maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, mankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Visit the website Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very 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 supplying quick transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely reusable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.