Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating 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 company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first significant financiers in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Area, X.

Elon Musk established Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was reluctant to support apartheid through obligatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher financial opportunities readily available in the United States. Musk participated in 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 founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online monetary services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Buddy, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for . 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind needs to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more inexpensive rockets.

A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first introduced in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has announced 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 designed for providing 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 sought to decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it launched from. elon musk spouse Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical car business established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.