Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial financiers in, along with president of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Discover more Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through obligatory military service and because he looked for the higher financial 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 founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage 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 quick transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry 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 lower the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally reusable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric car company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.