Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first significant investors in, in addition to president of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater economic opportunities available 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 organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced 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 expense. Area, X has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 designed for providing quick transport in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.