Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the very first significant financiers in, as well as ceo of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Leading Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft company Space, X.

Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. 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 created a computer game and sold it to a computer magazine. 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 higher economic opportunities readily 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 company that offered maps and company directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Friend 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 species. However, he was disappointed with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, 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 rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy 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 supplying fast transportation between cities in the world 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 looked for to lower the cost of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made numerous brief flights to evaluate 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 membership and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electrical automobiles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car company founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.