Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business 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 company Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first substantial financiers in, along with ceo of, the electrical cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and since he sought the higher economic chances 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's You can find out more Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually 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 designed for offering quick transportation between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many 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 reduce the cost of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and Home page gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.