Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the first substantial financiers in, along with ceo of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher financial opportunities offered 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 he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that supplied maps and business directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which focused 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 survive, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective 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 biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. 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 created for offering fast transportation between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.