Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant investors in, as well as ceo of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon 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 president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the greater financial chances offered 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 established Zip2, a business that offered maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, 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 survive, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced the successor 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 quick transportation in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric automobile company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.