Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first considerable investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, 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 first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering quick transport in between cities 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 bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could raise off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also 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 long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.