Elon Musk - Speaker - Ted

1. Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Area 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, Friend and formed Area, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was also one of the first considerable financiers in, along with president of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Questions, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Friend and founded the spacecraft company Space, X. Elon Musk established Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the chief executive officer and a significant 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 skill for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and offered it to a computer system magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the higher economic chances offered in the United States. Musk attended 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 established 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 established an online monetary services business, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which specialized in moving money online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long persuaded that for life to endure, humanity needs to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets. A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was developed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has revealed the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first stage would be capable of raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying fast transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.

2. Dragon can carry as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to minimize the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could take off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to test such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Space, X, Musk was also chief designer read more in building the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to unique material. Subscribe Now Musk had long had an interest in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later renamed Tesla), an electric vehicle company established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.