Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial 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 company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, along with president of, the electric car producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater financial opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk attended 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.
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In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and organization directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very 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 offering fast transportation in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many 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 expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical car business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.