Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first considerable financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric car maker Tesla. Top Questions, grimes and elon musk Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and since he looked for the higher economic chances available in the United States. Musk attended 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 company that supplied maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 developed for providing fast transportation between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally recyclable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made a number of brief flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon Get more information rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electrical vehicle business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.