Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the first substantial investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater economic chances 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 established Zip2, a company that offered maps and business directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 Helpful resources billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage 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 offering fast transport between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can Additional resources bring 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 looked for to lower the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally reusable rocket that might raise 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 Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
