Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business 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, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant investors in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electrical vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was unwilling to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the greater financial opportunities offered in the United States. Musk attended 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 established Zip2, a company that provided maps and company directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration 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 rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has 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 raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transport in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. 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 vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.