Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial investors in, as well as president of, the electrical vehicle maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold 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 since he sought the higher economic opportunities available 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 company that offered maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Friend, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the terrific expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.
A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for providing fast transportation between cities in the world 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 sought to lower the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.