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 Space Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, in addition to president of, the electrical automobile producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and because he sought the higher economic opportunities 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 offered 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 monetary services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which specialized in moving money 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 needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has announced the successor 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 created for supplying quick transport between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring 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 establishing a fully recyclable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
