Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first significant financiers in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X.

Elon Musk founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. 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 magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he sought the greater economic chances readily available in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Friend, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times Additional reading as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business'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 quick transport between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can bring as lots of as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the cost of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might Visit this page take off and go back to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric vehicle business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.