Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first significant financiers in, in addition to chief executive officer of, the electrical car manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, View website Friend and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through compulsory military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater economic chances 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in ceo.electionmagic.com/page/elon-musk-dating-fully-reusable-1r-3mb99smfh 1997.

In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that offered maps and organization directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humankind needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.

A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering quick transport in between cities in the world and developing 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 looked for to minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a fully recyclable rocket that might lift off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.