Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also among the first significant investors in, in addition to chief executive officer of, the electric car maker Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he looked for the higher economic chances offered 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that offered maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice 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 very first phase would can lifting 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 in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous 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 expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing 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 electric vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.