Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial financiers in, along with ceo of, the electric vehicle producer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars Get more information and trucks. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher financial chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 business that provided maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was created 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 Click for info the expense. Space, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering fast transport between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for 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. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.