Who Is Elon Musk, And What Made Him Big? - Business ...

1. Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first business spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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 likewise one of the first considerable financiers in, in addition to ceo of, the electrical automobile maker Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Buddy and founded the spacecraft company Space, X. Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, that makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mother. He displayed 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 obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was reluctant to support apartheid through required military service and because he sought the greater economic opportunities offered in the United States. Musk participated in Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997. In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that supplied maps and service directories to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later on ended up being Pay, Friend, which specialized in transferring money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to make it through, humanity has to end up being a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the great expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more economical rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was created to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Area, X has announced the successor 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 transportation in between cities in the world and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.

2. Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight bring astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to decrease the expense of spaceflight by developing a totally multiple-use rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made several short flights to evaluate such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also primary designer in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.