Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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 here who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first considerable investors in, along with president of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical cars and pbase.com/topics/broughgkia/bdsxcba261 trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the greater financial opportunities offered 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 business that provided maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humanity needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced 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 created for supplying fast transport in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to reduce the expense of spaceflight by developing a completely multiple-use rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique 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 company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.