Think Tank: Transcript For "Elon Musk And The Frontier Of ... - Pbs

1. Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the very first industrial spacecraft to dock with the International Spaceport 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, Pal and formed Space, X, maker of launch cars and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first considerable financiers in, along with chief executive officer of, the electrical automobile manufacturer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment firm Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft business Area, X. Elon Musk established Area, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He ended up being the chief executive officer and a significant funder of Tesla, that makes electric vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mother. He showed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he developed a computer game and sold it to a computer publication. In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa because he was reluctant to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the higher 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 offered maps and service directory sites to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was purchased by the computer system manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then established an online financial services company, X.com, which later ended up being Pay, Pal, which specialized in transferring cash 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, mankind has to end up being a multiplanet types. However, he was dissatisfied with the excellent expenditure of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets. A third rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first launched in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, almost twice as much as its largest competitor, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has announced the follower to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy very first phase would can lifting 100,000 kg (220,000 pounds) to low Earth orbit. The payload would be the Starship, a spacecraft created for offering quick transportation in between cities on Earth and building bases on the Moon and Mars. 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 decrease the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could lift off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise chief designer in developing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Insect. Get a Britannica Premium membership and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had actually long been interested in the possibilities of electric automobiles, and in 2004 he became one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electric automobile business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.