Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical car maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he looked for the greater economic opportunities offered in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which concentrated on 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 become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 designed for supplying 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 bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.