Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first considerable investors in, as well as president of, the electrical cars and truck maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. 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 produced a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for 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 business that provided maps and company directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would be capable of lifting 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 on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Click for info Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.