Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, elon musk kids Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first substantial financiers in, as well as president of, the electric car producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and because he sought the greater financial chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 established Zip2, a company that offered maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humanity needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.

A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in Continue reading 2018), was designed to bring 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. Area, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for supplying fast transport in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical vehicle business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.