Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first considerable financiers in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and sold it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and since he sought the greater economic chances offered in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.
In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Pal, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more economical rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was designed to bring 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. Space, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering fast transportation between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could lift off and go back to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.