Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Space, 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 Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the very first significant financiers in, along with ceo of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African dad Great site and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video 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 because he looked for the higher financial chances offered 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that provided maps and organization directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring 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, humankind has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Click here for more Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has announced the successor 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 fast transport in 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 bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to reduce the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally reusable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special 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 significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric automobile company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.