Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial 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 company Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant investors in, along with chief executive officer of, the electric automobile maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computer systems 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 because he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial chances 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 he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and business directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became 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 convinced that for life to endure, mankind needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase 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 providing quick transport in between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.