Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the Take a look at the site here first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first substantial investors in, in addition to chief executive officer of, the electric car producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft company Space, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets get more info and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 Click to find out more 1997.

In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that offered maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which concentrated on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind needs to become a multiplanet Additional resources types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon Home page 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for supplying quick transport in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can bring as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely reusable rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.