Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first substantial investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and because he looked for the higher economic chances available in the United States. Musk went to 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 company that offered maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which specialized in transferring money online. elon musk kid name The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very 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 offering quick transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as seven astronauts, and The original source it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to minimize the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.