Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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 vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first significant financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electric cars and truck producer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk went to 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 company that provided maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest competitor, 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 stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry 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 sought to reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.