Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, along with president of, the electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and Go to the website established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he looked for the higher financial 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 established Zip2, a company that provided maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more economical rockets.
A third 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 largest rival, the Boeing Business'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 raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transport between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry 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 decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Continue reading Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.