Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the 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 company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial investors in, in addition to president of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater financial chances 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 got 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 papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, mankind has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 providing fast transport in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as seven 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 could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.