Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial 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 Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first substantial financiers in, as well as ceo of, the electric automobile maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company 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 vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and since he looked for the higher economic opportunities 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 directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, mankind needs to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to bring 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 follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transportation between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.