Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical car producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the higher financial opportunities readily 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 founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and organization directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which specialized in 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, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to carry 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 cost. Area, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for supplying fast transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical car company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.