Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. Space, X (A Britannica Publishing Partner), (born June 28, 1971, Pretoria, South Africa), South African-born American entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also among the first considerable investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical automobile producer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Space, X.

Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the The original source greater financial chances offered in the United States. Musk went to 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 established Zip2, a business that provided maps and organization directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with Go to this website the terrific cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, 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 created for providing fast transportation in between cities on Earth and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can carry as many as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that might raise off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.