Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first significant financiers in, as well as president of, the electrical car manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft business Space, X.

Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and because he sought the greater economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk attended 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 business that provided maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially website released in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company'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 phase would be capable of lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for providing fast transport between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can carry as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to check such technology. 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 membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.