Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first business 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 company Pay, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first significant investors in, along with president of, the electrical car 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 president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he produced a video game and sold it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after obtaining Get more information a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he established Zip2, a company that offered maps and company directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on moving cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to endure, humankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its largest rival, the deanxksx011.bearsfanteamshop.com/elon-musk-becomes-world-s-richest-person-as-wealth-tops 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 first stage would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for offering quick transportation between cities on Earth and building 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 reduce the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to Learn more here 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 had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical cars and truck business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.