Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South Find out more African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first significant financiers in, as well as president of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent 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 due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that supplied maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Visit this site Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies Find more information (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially 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 Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. 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 phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for supplying fast transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many 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 cost of spaceflight by developing a fully reusable rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to test such innovation. 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 membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.