Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk Top Forbes Billionaires List

1. Video launched by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first industrial 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch vehicles and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first substantial financiers in, along with ceo of, the electrical cars and truck maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and established the spacecraft business Area, X. Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the ceo and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric automobiles. Musk was born to a South African daddy and a Canadian mother. He showed an early talent for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after acquiring a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he hesitated to support apartheid through required military service and because he sought the greater 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 received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997. In 1995 he established Zip2, a business that provided maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system producer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet types. However, he was disappointed with the great cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more cost effective rockets. A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was designed to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost two times as much as its biggest competitor, the Boeing Business'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 first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft developed for supplying quick transport between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars. Dragon can bring as numerous as 7 astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to decrease the expense of spaceflight by developing a completely multiple-use rocket that could raise off and go back to the pad it launched from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to check such technology. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was also chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. 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 cars, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electric cars and truck company founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.