Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant financiers in, as well as president of, the electrical automobile maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon More helpful hints Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the greater economic 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that supplied maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was created to carry 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 expense. Space, X has revealed the successor 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 developed for supplying quick transport 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 lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could raise off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.