Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, in addition to president of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Area, X.

Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical automobiles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an more info early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and since he looked for the greater economic opportunities available 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that offered maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for https://kittanjxjf.doodlekit.com/blog/entry/20500883/elon-musk-is-now-the-worlds-richest-man-his-tweet-in- life to survive, humanity needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.

A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually announced the follower 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 developed for offering quick transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to minimize the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally recyclable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 Helpful resources he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical car business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.