Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Dragon cargo and crew spacecraft and Starlink communications satellites.
SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 in 2008), the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012), the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2015), the first reuse of an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2017), and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station (SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020). SpaceX has flown and reflown the Falcon 9 series of rockets over one hundred times.
SpaceX is developing a satellite megaconstellation named Starlink to provide commercial internet service. In January 2020 the Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation in the world. SpaceX is also developing Starship, a privately funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary spaceflight. Starship is intended to become the primary SpaceX orbital vehicle once operational, supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon fleet. Starship will be fully reusable and will have the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever on its debut, scheduled for the early 2020s.
History
2001–2004: Founding
In 2001, Elon Musk conceptualized Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.[citation needed] He announced that the project would be "the farthest that life's ever traveled" in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration and increase the budget of NASA.[5][6][7] Musk tried to purchase cheap rockets from Russia but returned empty-handed after failing to find rockets for an affordable price.[8][9]
On the flight home Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed.[9] By applying vertical integration,[8] using cheap commercial off-the-shelf components when possible,[9] and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch price.[9]
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.[10] SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees.[11]
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.[12]
2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches
SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with private funding.[13][14] 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.[15]
In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade, a program which would later become the Dragon spacecraft.[16] In 2006, NASA announced that the company was one of two selected to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the COTS program.[17]
The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defenseunder a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use by DARPA.[14][18][19] The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures. The first successful launch was achieved on 28 September 2008. The Falcon 1 was retired after its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009, which allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9.[20]
2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts
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SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5.[21] SpaceX 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 purchase several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006.[22] 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.[22] 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.[23] By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.[24]
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.[25] In August 2012 NASA awarded SpaceX a firm, fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) with the objective of producing a detailed design of the entire crew transportation system. This contract includes numerous key technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions following system certification.[26]
In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of the company stock was owned by the founder Musk[27]and his 70 million shares were then estimated to be worth US$875 million on private markets,[28]valuing SpaceX at US$1.3 billion.[29] In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.[30] After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to US$2.4 billion or US$20/share.[31][32] By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately US$1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately US$200 million, with Musk investing approximately US$100 million and other investors having put in about US$100 million.[33]
SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of the landing technology.[34] 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.[34]
2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth
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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.[35] That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX.[36][37]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 was dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA).[38] The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over US$400 million over the years.[39]
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.[40] The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service. The following June, the company asked the federal government for permission to begin testing for the project, aiming to build a constellation of 4,425 satellites.[41]
The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7exploded two minutes into the flight.[42] 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.[43]
2015–2017: Reusability milestones
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SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20.[44] 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.[45] 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.[46]
In early September 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test.[47] The payload, the Amos-6 communications satellite valued at US$200 million, was destroyed.[48] 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.[49]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.[50]
On 30 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.[51] The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket.[52]
2017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider
In July 2017, the Company raised US$350 million for a valuation of US$21 billion.[53] In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts.[54] By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about US$12 billion in contract revenue.[55] The contracts included both commercial and government(NASA/DOD) customers.[56] This made SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches.[57]
In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company,[58] 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,[59] which was completed in May 2018,[60] and opened to the public in December 2018.[61] 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.[61]
2019–present: Starship, Starlink, and first crewed launches
On 11 January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce in order to help finance the Starship and Starlink projects.[62] 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.[63]
SpaceX raised a total of US$1.33 billion of capital across three funding rounds in 2019.[64] By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$33.3 billion[65] and reached US$36 billion by March 2020.[66]
On 30 May 2020, SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragonspacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Stationand marking the first crewed launch from American soil in 9 years.[67][68] The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.[69]
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.[70][71][72] In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional US$1.61 billion in an equity round from 99 investors[73] at a per share value of approximately $420,[72] raising the company valuation to approximately US$74 billion. It has raised a total of more than US$6 billion in equity financing to date. The capital-intensive phase in recent years has been principally to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle.[73]
Summary of achievements
Major achievements of SpaceX are in the reuse of orbital-class launch vehicles and cost reduction in the space launch industry. Most notable of these being the continued landings and relaunches of the first stage of Falcon 9 following a multi-year program to develop the reusable technology. As of December 2020, SpaceX has used two separate first-stage boosters, B1049 and B1051, seven times each.[74]SpaceX is a private space company with most of its achievements the result of self-funded development efforts, not developed by traditional cost-plus contracting of the US government. As a result, many of its achievements are also considered as firsts by a private company.
| Date | Achievement | Flight |
|---|---|---|
| 28 September 2008 | First privately funded fully liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.[75] | Falcon 1 flight 4 |
| 14 July 2009 | First privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to put a commercial satellite in orbit. | RazakSAT on Falcon 1 flight 5 |
| 9 December 2010 | First private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft. | SpaceX Dragon on SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 |
| 25 May 2012 | First private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).[76] | Dragon C2+ |
| 22 December 2015 | First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on land. | Falcon 9 B1019 on Orbcomm OG2 M2 |
| 8 April 2016 | First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on an ocean platform. | Falcon 9 B1021 on SpaceX CRS-8 |
| 30 March 2017 | First reuse, reflight and (second) landing of an orbital first stage.[51] | Falcon 9 B1021 on SES-10 |
| 30 March 2017 | First controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing.[77] | SES-10 |
| 3 June 2017 | First re-flight of a commercial cargo spacecraft.[78] | Dragon C106 on SpaceX CRS-11 |
| 6 February 2018 | First private spacecraft launched into heliocentric orbit. | Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster on Falcon Heavy test flight |
| 2 March 2019 | First private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to orbit. | Crew Dragon Demo-1 |
| 3 March 2019 | First private company to autonomously dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). | |
| 25 July 2019 | First flight of a full-flow staged combustion cycle engine (Raptor).[79] | Starhopper |
| 11 November 2019 | First reuse and reflight of payload fairing. The fairing was from the ArabSat-6A mission in April 2019. | Starlink 2 v1.0 |
| January 2020 | Largest commercial satellite constellation operator in the world.[63] | Starlink 3 v1.0 |
| 30 May 2020 | First private company to send humans into orbit.[80] | Crew Dragon Demo-2 |
| 31 May 2020 | First private company to send humans to the International Space Station(ISS).[81] | |
| 24 Jan 2021 | Most spacecraft launched into space on a single mission, with 143 satellites.[a][82] | Transporter-1 on Falcon 9 |
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