Video launched 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. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first considerable investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electric automobile maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company 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 electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the higher economic opportunities readily 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 founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and business directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased 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 types. However, he was Click here disappointed with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase 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 supplying fast transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring 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 sought to lower the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally recyclable rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such innovation. 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 material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.