Who Is Elon Musk? - Sciencealert

1. Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport Station. Area, 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 Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was also one of the very first substantial financiers in, along with chief executive officer of, the electric cars and truck maker Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft business Space, X. Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computer systems 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 hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher financial chances available 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 business that provided maps and service directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later became Pay, Buddy, which focused on moving money online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to survive, humankind has to become a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets. A third 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 Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has actually announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing fast transport between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. Dragon can bring 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 minimize the expense of spaceflight by establishing a completely multiple-use rocket that might take off and go back to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made several brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long had an interest in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical automobile company established by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.