SpaceX

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This article is about the rocket and spacecraft manufacturer. For the British art gallery,
see Spacex (art gallery).
"Space Exploration Technologies" redirects here. For the general topics, see Space
exploration and Space technology.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Headquarters in December 2017; plumes from a flight of a Falcon 9

rocket are visible overhead

Trade name SpaceX

Type Private

Industry Space, communications

Founded March 14, 2002; 20 years ago in El Segundo,

California, U.S.[1]

Founder Elon Musk

Headquarters Hawthorne, California

, 
 United States

Elon Musk
Key people
(CEO, Chairman and CTO, 2002–present)[2]
Gwynne Shotwell
(president and COO)[3]

Products Several launch vehicles

Several rocket engines
Dragon capsules
Starship (in development)
Starlink
SpaceBEE

Services Orbital rocket launch, satellite internet

Revenue US$2 billion (2018)[4]

Owner Elon Musk Trust

(47.4% equity; 78.3% voting control)[5]

Number of employees 12,000[6] (April 2022)

Subsidiaries Swarm Technologies

Website www.spacex.com 

This article is part of

a series about
Elon Musk

 Awards and honors

 Views
 Filmography

Companies

 Zip2
 X.com 
o PayPal
 SpaceX 
o Starlink
 Tesla, Inc. 
 o Criticism
o Energy
o Litigation
 OpenAI
 Neuralink
 The Boring Company
 Twitter, Inc. 
o Acquisition

In popular culture

 Elon Musk
 Ludicrous
 Power Play
 "Members Only"
 "The Platonic Permutation"
 "The Musk Who Fell to Earth"
 "One Crew over the Crewcoo's Morty"

Related

 Boring Test Tunnel

 Hyperloop
 Musk family
 SolarCity
 Tesla Roadster in space
 TSLAQ

 v
 t
 e

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft

manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered
in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of
reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. The company
manufactures the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, several rocket
engines, Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Starlink communications
satellites.
SpaceX is developing a satellite internet constellation named Starlink to provide
commercial internet service. In January 2020, the Starlink constellation became the
 largest satellite constellation ever launched, and as of September 2022 comprises over
3,000 small satellites in orbit.[7] The company is also developing Starship, a privately
funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital
spaceflight. It is intended to become SpaceX's primary orbital vehicle once operational,
supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleet. It will have the
highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever built on its debut, which is scheduled
for 2022 pending a launch license. [8]
SpaceX's achievements include the first privately developed liquid-propellant rocket to
reach orbit around Earth;[9] the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and
recover a spacecraft; the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International
Space Station; the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital
rocket booster; first reuse of such booster; and the first private company to send
astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. SpaceX has flown and landed
the Falcon 9 series of rockets over one hundred times.

Contents

 1History
o 1.12001–2004: Founding
o 1.22005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches
o 1.32010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts
o 1.42013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth
o 1.52015–2017: Reusability milestones
o 1.62017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider
o 1.72019–present: Starship, Starlink, and first crewed launches
o 1.8Summary of achievements
 2Hardware
o 2.1Launch vehicles
o 2.2Rocket engines
o 2.3Dragon spacecraft
o 2.4Autonomous spaceport drone ships
o 2.5Starship
o 2.6Starlink
o 2.7Other projects
 3Facilities
o 3.1Headquarters, manufacturing, and refurbishment facilities
o 3.2Development and test facilities
o 3.3Launch facilities
 4Contracts
o 4.1Cargo to ISS
o 4.2Crewed
o 4.3National defense
 5Launch market competition and pricing pressure
 6Corporate affairs
o 6.1Board of directors
 o 6.2Leadership changes
o 6.3Workplace culture
 7References
 8Further reading
 9External links

History[edit]
Main article: History of SpaceX
See also: List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches
2001–2004: Founding[edit]
In early 2001, Elon Musk donated $100,000 to the Mars Society and joined its board of
directors for a short time.[10]: 30–31  He was offered a plenary talk at their convention where
he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and
grow plants on Mars, to revive public interest in space exploration. [11] Musk initially
attempted to acquire a Dnepr ICBM for the project through Russian contacts from Jim
Cantrell.[12] However two months later, the United States withdrew from the ABM
Treaty and created the Missile Defense Agency, increasing tensions with Russia and
generating new strategic interest for rapid and re-usable launch capability similar to
the DC-X.[13]
When Musk returned to Moscow, Russia with Michael Griffin (who led the CIA's venture
capital arm In-Q-Tel[14]), they found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. [15][16] On the
flight home Musk announced that he could start a company to build the affordable
rockets they needed instead.[16] By applying vertical integration,[15] using
cheap commercial off-the-shelf components when possible,[16] and adopting the modular
approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut
launch price.[16] Griffin would later be appointed NASA administrator[17] and award SpaceX
a $396 million contract in 2006 before SpaceX had flown a rocket. [18]
In early 2002, Musk started to look for staff for his new space company, soon to be
named SpaceX. Musk approached rocket engineer Tom Mueller (later SpaceX's CTO of
propulsion) and invited him to become his business partner. Mueller agreed to work for
Musk, and thus SpaceX was born.[19] SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse
in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees such as Tom
Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO) and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations) came
from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations following the cancellation of the Brilliant
Pebbles program.[20] By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. [21] Musk
personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees. [22] Musk has
stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the
reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.[23]
2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches[edit]
Main article: Falcon 1
The first successful Falcon 1 launch in September 2008

SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with internal funding.[24]
[25]
 The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle. The total
development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately US$90 million[26] to US$100 million.
[27]
 The Falcon name was adopted from the DARPA Falcon Project, part of the Prompt
Global Strike program of the US military.[28]
In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program
through the end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon
spacecraft.[29] In 2006, the company was selected by NASA to provide crew and cargo
resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the COTS program.[30]
The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of
Defense under a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use
by DARPA.[25][31][32] The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all
resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had
failed, as well,[33] and consequently Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly
bankrupt at the same time.[34] Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming
and in physical pain" because of the stress.[35]
The financial situation started to turn around with the first successful launch achieved
on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $30 million
between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply
Services (CRS) contract to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company.
[36]
 Musk received outside funding from local entrepreneurs T. Boone Pickens Jr. and
Matthew Brown Companies. Based on these factors and the further business operations
they enabled, the Falcon 1 was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth
total, launch in July 2009; this allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the
development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. [37] Gwynne Shotwell was also
promoted to company president at this time, for her role in successfully negotiating the
CRS contract with the NASA Administrator (and former SpaceX contractor) Michael
Griffin.[38][39]
2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts[edit]
1:53
Video of the first launch of Falcon 9

SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an
intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5.[40] The company instead decided in 2005 to
proceed with the development of the Falcon 9, a reusable heavier lift vehicle.
Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchasing
several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with
seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in
2006.[41] The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide development funding
for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with
Dragon.[41] As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010
with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft.
The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS
Demo Flight 1, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits,
completing all its mission objectives.[42] By December 2010, the SpaceX production line
was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months. [43]
In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev)
program, NASA issued a US$75 million contract for SpaceX to develop an
integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew
transport vehicle to the ISS.[44] NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act
Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in
August 2012.[45]
In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk [46] and his
70 million shares were then estimated to be worth US$875 million on private markets,
[47]
 valuing SpaceX at US$1.3 billion.[48] In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch Dragon
became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space
Station.[49] After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to
US$2.4 billion or US$20/share.[50][51] By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding
of approximately $1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity
provided approximately $200 million, with Musk investing approximately $100 million
and other investors having put in about $100 million.[52]
SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude,
low-speed aspects of the landing technology.[53] The Falcon 9 prototypes performed
vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of
the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013. [53]
2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth[edit]
Launch of Falcon 9 carrying ORBCOMM OG2-M1, July 2014

SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014,
SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide. [54] That
year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to
face the competition from SpaceX.[55][56] Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and
pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for
nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch
Alliance (ULA).[57] The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to
over US$400 million over the years.[58] In September 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX the
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the
development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several
technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and
six operational missions after certification. [45]
In January 2015, SpaceX raised US$1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity, in
exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at
approximately US$12 billion.[59] The same month SpaceX announced the development of
a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service
with 4,000 satellites.[60]
The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply
mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem was traced to a failed
2-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel, which broke free due to the
force of acceleration. This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape
into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing the failure. [61]
2015–2017: Reusability milestones[edit]
Falcon 9 first stage on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) barge after the first successful landing at
sea, SpaceX CRS-8 mission

SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December
2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20.[62] In April 2016, the company achieved the first successful
landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in
the Atlantic Ocean.[63] By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX
indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly
their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage.[64]
A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when a Falcon 9
exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test. The
payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at US$200 million, was
destroyed.[65] The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant
turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels.
[66]
 Though not considered an unsuccessful flight, the rocket explosion sent the company
into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned
to flight in January 2017.[67]
Later that year, in March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-
10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went
back to space.[68] The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a
reused orbital class rocket.[69]
2017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider[edit]
In July 2017, the company raised US$350 million, which raised its valuation to
US$21 billion.[70] In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded
commercial launch contracts.[71] By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches
on its manifest representing about US$12 billion in contract revenue.[72] The contracts
included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers.[73] This made
SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested
launches.[74]
In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company,[75] and began work to
construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and
manufacturing facility, utilizing a small number of SpaceX employees, [76] which was
completed in May 2018,[77] and opened to the public in December 2018. [78] During 2018,
The Boring Company was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the
equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the
equity to Elon Musk.[78]
2019–present: Starship, Starlink, and first crewed launches[edit]

Starship in launch position

In January 2019 SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce in order to
help finance the Starship and Starlink projects.[79] Construction of initial prototypes and
tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction
and testing moved to the new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year. In May
2019 SpaceX also launched the first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning the
deployment of what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation
the following year.[80] The company raised a total of US$1.33 billion of capital across
three funding rounds in 2019.[81] By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to
US$33.3 billion[82] and reached US$36 billion by March 2020.[83]
A major milestone was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two
NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew
Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private
company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first
crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years. [84][85] The mission launched
from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) of the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.[86]
On 19 August 2020, after a US$1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single
fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to
US$46 billion.[87][88][89] In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional US$1.61 billion in an
equity round from 99 investors[90] at a per share value of approximately $420,[89] raising
the company valuation to approximately US$74 billion. By 2021, SpaceX had raised a
total of more than US$6 billion in equity financing. Most of the capital raised since 2019
has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation
and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. [90] By October
2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$100.3 billion.[91] By 2021, SpaceX had
entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-
ground computer and networking services for Starlink.[92] A new round of financing in
2022 values SpaceX at US$127 billion.[93]
In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas,
landing a booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021[94] Within the
first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns.
The majority of 2022 SpaceX launches have focused on Starlink, a consumer internet
business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 2,200
satelli