Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Area, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher economic chances 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that offered maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was designed to carry View website 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would can 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 in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can 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 sought to reduce the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully reusable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric car business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.