Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport 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, Pal and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first considerable financiers in, along with president of, the electric cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through mandatory military service and because he looked for the greater economic opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that provided maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which focused on 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, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transport between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that could lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to test such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.