Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first significant financiers in, as well as president of, the electric car manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic chances 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 provided maps and business directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed 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 announced 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 lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transport in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made a number of short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.