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 Area 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 Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also among the first Click for info considerable investors in, along with ceo of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater financial opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk attended 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 founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and service directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. Visit this website 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for providing quick transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous 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 minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that might lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique 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 relabelled Tesla), an electric car company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.