Elon Musk: Latest News, Top Stories & Analysis - Politico

Video released by spacecraft maker Space, X celebrating its Dragon pill, which on May 25, 2012, ended up being the very first commercial 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 entrepreneur who cofounded the electronic-payment company Pay, Friend and formed Space, X, maker of launch automobiles and spacecraft. He was likewise one of the first significant investors in, in addition to president of, the electric vehicle maker Tesla. Leading Questions, Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971. Elon Musk cofounded the electronic payment company Pay, Pal and founded the spacecraft company Space, X.

Elon Musk established Space, X, a company that makes rockets and spacecraft. He became the primary executive officer and a major funder of Tesla, which makes electrical vehicles. Musk was born to a South African father and a Canadian mom. He showed an early talent for computers and entrepreneurship. At age 12 he created a computer game and offered it to a computer system magazine. elon musk and grimes In 1988, after obtaining a Canadian passport, Musk left South Africa since he hesitated to support apartheid through mandatory military service and due to the fact that he looked Learn here for the higher economic chances available in the United States. Musk attended Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and in 1992 he moved to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, where he received bachelor's degrees in physics and economics in 1997.

In 1995 he founded Zip2, a company that offered maps and service directories to online newspapers. In 1999 Zip2 was bought by the computer Helpful resources system maker Compaq for $307 million, and Musk then founded an online financial services business, X.com, which later on became Pay, Buddy, which specialized in transferring cash online. The online auction e, Bay bought Pay, Pal in 2002 for $1. 5 billion. Musk was long convinced that for life to make it through, mankind has to become a multiplanet species. However, he was disappointed with the excellent expense of rocket launchers. In 2002 he founded Space Exploration Technologies (Space, X) to make more budget friendly rockets.

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A 3rd rocket, the Falcon Heavy (first released in 2018), was developed to bring 117,000 pounds (53,000 kg) to orbit, nearly twice as much as its biggest rival, the Boeing Business's Delta IV Heavy, for one-third the expense. Area, X has announced 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 designed for supplying fast transportation in between cities on Earth and constructing bases on the Moon and Mars.

Dragon can carry as lots of 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 cost of spaceflight by establishing a totally multiple-use rocket that might take off and return to the pad it released from. Starting in 2012, Space, X's Insect rocket made several short flights to check such innovation. In addition to being CEO of Area, X, Musk was likewise 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 been interested in the possibilities of electric cars and trucks, and in 2004 he turned into one of the significant funders of Tesla Motors (later on relabelled Tesla), an electrical vehicle business founded by business owners Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.