Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, 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 vehicles and spacecraft. He was also one of the first considerable financiers in, in addition to president of, the electric automobile producer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher economic chances offered 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 got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that supplied maps and service directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humanity needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more cost effective rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. twitter elon musk Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering fast transportation between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that could take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he became one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.