Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the 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 lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first substantial financiers in, as well as ceo of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Top 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 founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater economic opportunities available in the United States. Musk went to 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 company that offered maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, Go to the website and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought 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 dissatisfied with the great cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in Visit this page 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transport between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made a number of short 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 Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.