Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Area, 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 Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial financiers in, as well as president of, the electric automobile get more info maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric automobiles. Musk Visit this link was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he sought 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that supplied maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. 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 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually announced the follower 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 developed for supplying quick 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 looked for to minimize the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could take off and Visit this page return to the Click here for more info pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.