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

1. Video launched by spacecraft maker Space, X commemorating its Dragon capsule, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the International Space 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 company Pay, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise among the first considerable financiers in, as well as primary executive officer of, the electric vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft company Area, X. Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the ceo and a significant funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. 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 produced a video game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he was unwilling to support apartheid through required military service and due to the fact that he sought the higher economic opportunities available 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 company that supplied maps and company directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online monetary services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Buddy, which concentrated on moving 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, humankind has to end up being a multiplanet species. Nevertheless, he was dissatisfied with the excellent cost of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Area Expedition Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets. A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially released in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its largest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has actually announced the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can raising 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft designed for providing quick transport in between cities in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars. Dragon can bring as many as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk looked for to reduce the expenditure of spaceflight by establishing a totally reusable rocket that might take off and return to the pad it introduced from. Starting in 2012, Area, X's Insect rocket made numerous short flights to test such innovation. 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 special material. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric vehicles, and in 2004 he turned into one of the major funders of Tesla Motors (later relabelled Tesla), an electrical car business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.