Elon Musk - Royal Society

1. Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Buddy and formed Area, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first substantial financiers in, in addition to primary executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck manufacturer 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 founded Space, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the president and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and offered it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he looked for the greater economic chances offered 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997. In 1995 he founded Zip2, a business that supplied maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which specialized in 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 make it through, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the fantastic cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Area, X) to make more affordable rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Company's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Space, X has revealed the successor 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 designed for supplying quick transport between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. Dragon can carry as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to lower the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a

2. completely reusable rocket that might lift off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Space, 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 had an interest in the possibilities of electrical cars and trucks, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electrical vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.