Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial 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 firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first substantial financiers in, along with primary executive officer of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was unwilling to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater financial chances readily 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that provided maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humanity has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 offering quick transportation in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
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Dragon can carry as numerous 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 expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.