Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first business spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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 company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend 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, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and since he sought the higher economic chances readily 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that supplied maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was developed to carry 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. Space, X has 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 created for providing fast transport in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expense of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that could raise off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such technology. 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 special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.