How Elon Musk Became Elon Musk: Elon Musk's Early Years

[Crista Sandridge]

Video released by spacecraft maker Area, X commemorating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, became the first industrial 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment firm Pay, Buddy and formed Space, X, maker of launch lorries and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the very first substantial financiers in, as well as chief executive officer of, the electrical cars and truck producer Tesla. Top Concerns, Elon Musk was born upon June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Friend and established the spacecraft business Space, X.

Elon Musk founded Area, X, a business that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the president and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electric cars and trucks. Musk was born to a South African dad and a Canadian mom. He displayed an early skill for computer systems and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a video game and sold it to a computer magazine. In 1988, after getting a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa due to the fact that he hesitated to support apartheid through compulsory military service and because he sought the higher financial chances readily available in the United States. Musk went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he got bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that provided maps and business directory sites to online papers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer manufacturer Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Friend, which focused on transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay purchased Pay, Buddy in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to survive, humankind needs to become a multiplanet types. Nevertheless, he was disappointed with the terrific expenditure of more info rocket launchers. In 2002 he established Area Expedition Technologies (Area, X) to make more budget-friendly rockets.

A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (initially launched in 2018), was created to carry 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly two times as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the cost. Space, X has actually revealed the successor to the Falcon 9 and the Falcon Heavy: the Super Heavy, Starship system. The Super Heavy first stage 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 in the world and building bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can bring as numerous as seven astronauts, and it had a crewed flight carrying astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS in 2020. Musk sought to lower the expense of spaceflight by establishing a fully multiple-use rocket that could raise off and return to the pad it introduced from. Beginning in 2012, Area, X's Grasshopper rocket made numerous brief flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise primary designer in constructing the Falcon rockets, Dragon, and Grasshopper. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to special content. Subscribe Now Musk had long been interested in the possibilities of electric cars, and in 2004 he ended up being one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on renamed Tesla), an electric car business established by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.