Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first considerable investors in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electrical vehicle producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and since he looked for the greater economic chances offered in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and business directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Pal, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elonmusk1/1/history-of-jeff-brown-investor.html make more economical rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transport between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous 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 minimize the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric car company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.