Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial 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 very first substantial investors in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed 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 since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and since he sought the higher financial opportunities offered 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 founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has 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 raising 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 carry as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also 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 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electrical vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.