Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport 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 likewise among the first substantial financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Space, 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, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill 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 due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred 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 supplied maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humanity needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 developed for providing quick transport between cities on Earth and constructing 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 minimize the cost of spaceflight by developing a fully reusable rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting 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 chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.