Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also among the first considerable financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, 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 established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer system publication. 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 since he sought the higher economic opportunities readily available in the United read more 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 offered maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies Go here (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business'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 stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transportation between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a completely recyclable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Great site Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.