Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the first substantial investors in, along with president of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, 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 founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater financial chances offered 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 established Zip2, a business that provided maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, mankind has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transport between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as lots of 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 lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a totally multiple-use rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to evaluate such innovation. 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 subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.