Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first industrial 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 company Pay, Buddy and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was also among the very first substantial investors in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and established the spacecraft company Space, X.
Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets Visit this site and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through obligatory military service and because he sought the greater economic chances offered in the United States. Musk went to 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.
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In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that provided maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets.
A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially introduced in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has 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 offering quick transportation in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.
Dragon can bring as lots of 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 lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a totally recyclable rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric cars and truck business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.