Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, Extra resources X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Space, 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 Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first considerable financiers in, along with chief executive officer of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill 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 hesitated to support apartheid through required military service follow this link and because he looked for the higher financial chances offered in the United States. Musk went to 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 business that provided maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being 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 convinced that for life to endure, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has revealed the successor 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 created for providing fast transport in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the cost of spaceflight by developing a fully multiple-use rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.