Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. 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 acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and since he looked for the higher economic Click for source opportunities offered in the United States. Musk went to 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 provided maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first Homepage phase would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering fast transport between cities Check out the post right here on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expense of spaceflight by developing a fully recyclable rocket that could lift off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical car business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.