Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first significant financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electric automobile maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and because he sought the greater financial chances available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and company directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has 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 lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for supplying quick transportation between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can bring as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by Click for more developing a fully reusable rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Click for more info Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access elon musk age to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric click here vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical vehicle company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.