Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first substantial financiers in, as well as president of, the electric automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through mandatory military service and because he sought the higher economic chances available in the United States. Musk went to 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 established Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. 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 ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has revealed 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 raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing quick transportation between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous 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 lower the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a fully reusable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.