Video released by spacecraft maker Space, 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first substantial investors in, along with president of, the electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and because he looked for the greater financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk attended 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 offered maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for Discover more $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, elon musk kid name nearly two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually announced the successor 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 providing quick transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally recyclable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric automobile company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.