Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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 Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the first significant investors in, in addition to president of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and offered twitter elon musk it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher financial chances 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 company that supplied maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving money 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, mankind needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company'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 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 developed for providing quick transport between cities in the Check out this site world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous 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 minimize the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the follow this link major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electrical car company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.