Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first industrial 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first considerable investors in, along with ceo of, the electric cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he looked for the higher financial opportunities available in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where Helpful resources he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered 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 financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with Have a peek here the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was developed 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. Area, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 designed for supplying fast transportation in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical car company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.