Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first business 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also one of the first substantial investors in, as well as ceo of, the electrical car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and because he sought the higher economic chances 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 business that offered maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying quick transportation in between cities on Earth and developing 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 sought to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
