Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial 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 business owner who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first considerable investors in, along with chief executive officer of, the electrical vehicle maker 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 Area, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electrical cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and offered it to a computer system publication. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the greater economic opportunities offered in the United States. Musk attended 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 company that offered maps and organization directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later on became Pay, Pal, which concentrated on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for Have a peek here $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, humanity has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was dissatisfied with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he More helpful hints established Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was designed 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 announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for offering quick transport between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can carry as numerous as seven Continue reading astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to reduce the expenditure of spaceflight by developing a completely recyclable rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special material. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.