Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first considerable investors in, as well as president of, the electrical automobile maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company 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 daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and because he looked for the higher economic chances available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and company 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 monetary services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for supplying quick transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many 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 establishing Visit this page a completely reusable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.