Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first substantial financiers in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical automobile producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and since he sought the higher economic opportunities readily available 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 founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Pal, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually announced the successor 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 designed for providing quick 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 looked for to reduce the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.