Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the very 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first considerable investors in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Top 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 founded Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the primary executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill 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 mandatory military service and because he sought the greater financial chances 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 established Zip2, a business that offered maps and business directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humanity has to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has actually revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 supplying fast transportation between cities in the world and developing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a totally recyclable rocket that might raise off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made a number of short flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk Great post to read was also primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
