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
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
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
A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems.
The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
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 December 2022 comprises over 3,300
small satellites in orbit.
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
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
fleet. It will have the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever built on its debut, which is scheduled for early 2023 pending a launch license.
SpaceX has made several achievements in space exploration. These include making the first privately developed
liquid-propellant rocket
A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid rocket propellant, liquid propellants. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high Specific impulse, specific impulse (''I''sp). T ...
that reached orbit, the first private company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, the first private company to send a spacecraft to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
, the first to achieve
vertical propulsive landing of an orbital rocket booster, the first to reuse such a booster, and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. In addition, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets has been flown and landed over one hundred times.
History
2001–2004: Founding
In early 2001,
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
donated $100,000 to the
Mars Society
The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human Mars exploration and colonization, founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998. It is based on Zubrin's Mars Direct plan, which aims to make human mission to Mars as lightweight and fe ...
and joined its board of directors for a short time.
He was offered a plenary talk at their convention where he announced ''Mars Oasis'', a project to land a miniature experimental
greenhouse
A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...
and grow plants on Mars, to revive public interest in space exploration.
Musk initially attempted to acquire a
Dnepr Dnepr may refer to:
*Dnieper, a river flowing through Russia, Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea
* Dnepr (motorcycle), a Ukraininan motocycle brand
* Dnepr (rocket), a 1999 space launch vehicle
*Dnepr radar Dnepr may refer to:
*Dnieper, a river ...
ICBM for the project through Russian contacts from
Jim Cantrell
Jim Cantrell is an American entrepreneur, mechanical engineer and road racer. He is the CEO and co-founder of Phantom Space Corporation, which seeks to build space transportation technology. After working at the French Space Agency CNES (Centre N ...
. However two months later, the United States withdrew from the
ABM Treaty
The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty or ABMT) (1972–2002) was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ballis ...
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
The DC-X, short for Delta Clipper or Delta Clipper Experimental, was an uncrewed prototype of a reusable single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle built by McDonnell Douglas in conjunction with the United States Department of Defense's Strategic De ...
.
When Musk returned to Moscow, Russia with
Michael Griffin (who led the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
's venture capital arm
In-Q-Tel), they found the Russians increasingly unreceptive.
On the flight home Musk announced that he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead.
By applying
vertical integration
In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...
,
using cheap
commercial off-the-shelf
Commercial off-the-shelf or commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products are packaged or canned (ready-made) hardware or software, which are adapted aftermarket to the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of ...
components when possible,
and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch price.
Griffin would later be appointed
NASA administrator
The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to ...
and award SpaceX a $396 million contract in 2006 before SpaceX had flown a rocket.
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. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in
El Segundo, California
El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of th ...
. Early SpaceX employees such as
Tom Mueller (CTO),
Gwynne Shotwell (COO) and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations) came from neighboring
TRW and
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
corporations following the cancellation of the
Brilliant Pebbles
Brilliant Pebbles was a Missile defense, ballistic missile defense (BMD) system proposed by Lowell Wood and Edward Teller of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1987, near the end of the Cold War. The system would consist of tho ...
program. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees.
[Podcast: SpaceX COO On Prospects For Starship Launcher]
Aviation Week Irene Klotz, 27 May 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020 Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees.
Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to
space
Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...
, ultimately by a factor of ten.
2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches
![Falcon 1 Flight 4 liftoff](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Falcon_1_Flight_4_liftoff.jpg)
SpaceX developed its first
orbital launch vehicle, the
Falcon 1, with internal funding.
The Falcon 1 was an
expendable
''Expendable'' is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner, published in 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints.Avon Books; HarperCollins Canada; SFBC/AvoNova. Paperback edition 1997, Eos Books. It i ...
two-stage-to-orbit
A two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) or two-stage rocket launch vehicle is a spacecraft in which two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity. It is intermediate between a three-stage-to-orbit launcher and a hyp ...
small-lift launch vehicle.
The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately US$90 million
to US$100 million. The Falcon name was adopted from the
DARPA Falcon Project
The DARPA Falcon Project (Force Application and Launch from Continental United States) is a two-part joint project between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the United States Air Force (USAF) and is part of Prompt Global ...
, part of the
Prompt Global Strike program of the US military.
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
American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired ...
.
In 2006, the company was selected by NASA to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the
COTS program.
The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
under a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use by
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the Adv ...
.
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,
and consequently
Tesla,
SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress.
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. 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.
Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at this time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
Administrator (and former SpaceX contractor)
Michael Griffin.
2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts
SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5.
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
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
, 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.
The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide development funding for the
Dragon spacecraft
American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 before being retired ...
, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon.
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
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 was the first orbital spaceflight of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, and the second overall flight of the Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by SpaceX. It was also the first demonstration flight for NASA's Commercial Orbital ...
, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives.
By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.
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
A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...
for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the ISS.
NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price
Space Act Agreement
Space Act Agreements (abbreviated SAA) are a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (and subsequent congressional authorizations) that uniquely empowers the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...
(SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012.
In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his 70 million shares were then estimated to be worth US$875 million on
private markets
A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial markets ...
,
valuing SpaceX at US$1.3 billion.
In May 2012, with the
Dragon C2+
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), also known as Dragon C2+, was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft. It launched in May 2012 on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight ...
launch Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
.
After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to US$2.4 billion or US$20/share. 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.
SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of the landing technology.
The
Falcon 9 prototypes
Falcon 9 prototypes were experimental flight test reusable rockets that performed vertical takeoffs and landings. The project was privately funded by SpaceX, with no funds provided by any government until later on. Two prototypes were built, an ...
performed vertical takeoffs and landings (
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...
). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the
booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.
2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth
![Launch of Falcon 9 carrying ORBCOMM OG2-M1 (16601442698)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Launch_of_Falcon_9_carrying_ORBCOMM_OG2-M1_%2816601442698%29.jpg)
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.
That year
Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional
subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX.
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
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, a ...
(ULA).
The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over US$400 million over the years.
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.
In January 2015, SpaceX raised US$1 billion in funding from
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
and
Fidelity, in exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at approximately US$12 billion.
The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called
Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.
The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission,
CRS-7
SpaceX CRS-7, also known as SpX-7, was a private American Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station, contracted to NASA, which launched and failed on June 28, 2015. It disintegrated 139 seconds into the flight aft ...
exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem was traced to a failed 2-foot-long steel strut that held a
helium
Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
pressure vessel
A pressure vessel is a container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure substantially different from the ambient pressure.
Construction methods and materials may be chosen to suit the pressure application, and will depend on the size o ...
, which broke free due to the force of
acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the ...
. This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing the failure.
2015–2017: Reusability milestones
![CRS-8 (26239020092)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/CRS-8_%2826239020092%29.jpg)
SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with
Falcon 9 Flight 20
Falcon 9 flight 20 (also known as Orbcomm OG2 M2) was a Falcon 9 space launch that occurred on 22 December 2015 at 01:29:00 UTC (21 December, 8:29:00 pm local time). It was the first time that the first stage of an orbital rocket made a succe ...
.
In April 2016, the company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) ''
Of Course I Still Love You
An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large landing platform and is autonomously controlled when on station for a landing. Construction of ...
'' in the Atlantic Ocean.
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.
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
Launch vehicle system tests assess the readiness of a launch system to safely reach orbit. Launch vehicles undergo system tests before they launch. A wet dress rehearsal (WDR) and a more extensive static fire tests a fully assembled launch vehicl ...
.
The payload, the
AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at US$200 million, was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the
liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...
that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with
carbon composite helium vessels.
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.
Later that year, in March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the
SES-10
SES-10, is a geostationary communications satellite awarded in February 2014, owned and operated by SES S.A. and designed and manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space on the Eurostar-3000 satellite bus. It is positioned at the 67° West posi ...
satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space.
The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket.
2017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider
In July 2017, the company raised US$350 million, which raised its valuation to US$21 billion.
In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts.
By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about US$12 billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
(NASA/DOD) customers.
This made SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches.
In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary,
The Boring Company
The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk. Its ongoing and proposed projects are designed for intra-city ("loop") transit systems.
After six years TBC has completed one ...
,
[Agenda Item No. 9, City of Hawthorne City Council, Agenda Bill]
, 11 September 2018, Planning and Community Development Department, City of Hawthorne. Retrieved 13 September 2018 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,
which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018.
During 2018, The Boring Company was
spun out
''Spun Out'' is a Canadian television sitcom created by Jeff Biederman, Brent Piaskoski and Brian K. Roberts for CTV. It premiered on March 6, 2014 and ended on October 3, 2015, with a total of 26 episodes over the course of 2 seasons.
Premise
T ...
into a separate
corporate entity
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and re ...
with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk.
2019–present: Starship, Starlink, and first crewed launches
![Starship full stack](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Starship_full_stack.jpg)
In January 2019 SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce in order to help finance the
Starship
A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems.
The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
and
Starlink projects.
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.
The company raised a total of US$1.33 billion of capital across three funding rounds in 2019.
By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$33.3 billion and reached US$36 billion by March 2020.
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
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years.
The mission launched from
Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) of the
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
in Florida.
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.
In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional billion in an equity round from 99 investors
at a per share value of approximately $420,
raising the company valuation to approximately billion. By 2021, SpaceX had raised a total of more than 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.
By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$100.3 billion.
By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with
Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform (GCP), offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Drive, and YouTube. Alongside ...
and
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...
to provide on-ground computer and networking services for
Starlink. A new round of financing in 2022 values SpaceX at US$127 billion.
In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named
A Shortfall of Gravitas
An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is an ocean-going vessel derived from a deck barge, outfitted with station-keeping engines and a large floating landing platform, landing platform and is autonomous robot, autonomously controlled whe ...
, landing a booster from
CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021 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 satellites in orbit. On 13 December 2021, company CEO
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
announced that the company was starting a
carbon dioxide removal
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR), also known as negative emissions, is a process in which carbon dioxide gas () is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered for long periods of time. Similarly, greenhouse gas removal (GGR) or negative greenho ...
program that would
convert captured carbon into
rocket fuel, after he announced a $100 million donation to the
X Prize Foundation the previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best
carbon capture technology.
In August 2022, Reuters reported that the
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
(ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to
Soyuz rockets amid the
Ukraine conflict.
In December 2022, the U.S.
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) granted approval to launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.
Summary of achievements
Hardware
Launch vehicles
![CRS-18 Mission (48380511427)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/CRS-18_Mission_%2848380511427%29.jpg)
SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift
Falcon 1 was the first launch vehicle developed and was retired in 2009. The medium-lift
Falcon 9 and the heavy-lift
Falcon Heavy are both operational.
The
Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of placing several hundred kilograms into
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
. It launched five times between 2006 and 2009, of which 2 were successful.
The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
Falcon 9 is a
medium-lift launch vehicle
A medium-lift launch vehicle (MLV) is a rocket launch vehicle that is capable of lifting between by NASA classification or between by Russian classification of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO).50t payloads" An MLV is between small-lift laun ...
capable of delivering up to 22,800 kilograms (50,265 lb) to orbit, competing with the
Delta IV
Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta (rocket family), Delta rocket family introduced in the early 2000s. Originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space and Security division for the National Security Space Launch, ...
and the
Atlas V
Atlas V is an expendable launch system and the fifth major version in the Atlas (rocket family), Atlas launch vehicle family. It was originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture be ...
rockets, as well as other launch providers around the world. It has nine
Merlin
Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...
engines in its first stage. The
Falcon 9 v1.0
The Falcon 9 v1.0 was the first member of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle family, designed and manufactured by SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Development of the medium-lift launcher began in 2005, and it first flew on June 4, 2010. The Falc ...
rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on 4 June 2010. Its third flight,
COTS Demo Flight 2
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), also known as Dragon C2+, was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft. It launched in May 2012 on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The flight ...
, launched on 22 May 2012, and launched the first
commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station (ISS).
The vehicle was upgraded to
Falcon 9 v1.1 in 2013,
Falcon 9 Full Thrust in 2015, and finally to
Falcon 9 Block 5 in 2018. The first stage of Falcon 9 is designed to retropropulsively land, be recovered, and reflown.
The
Falcon Heavy is a
heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 63,800 kg (140,700 lb) to
Low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
(LEO) or 26,700 kg (58,900 lb) to
geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It uses three slightly modified Falcon 9 first stage cores with a total of 27
Merlin 1D engines.
The Falcon Heavy successfully flew its inaugural mission on 6 February 2018, launching Musk's personal
Tesla Roadster into
heliocentric orbit
A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun i ...
Both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are certified to conduct launches for the
National Security Space Launch (NSSL).
As of , the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been launched times, resulting in full mission successes, one partial success, and
one in-flight failure. In addition, a Falcon 9 experienced
a pre-flight failure prior to a static fire test in 2016.
Rocket engines
![SpaceX Testing Merlin 1D Engine In Texas](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/SpaceX_Testing_Merlin_1D_Engine_In_Texas.jpg)
Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, the company has developed several
rocket engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...
s –
Merlin
Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...
,
Kestrel, and
Raptor
Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to:
Animals
The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons.
* Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...
– for use in
launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...
s,
Draco
Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon.
Draco or Drako may also refer to:
People
* Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived
* D ...
for the
reaction control system
A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude contr ...
of the Dragon series of spacecraft,
and
SuperDraco for abort capability in
Crew Dragon.
Merlin is a family of rocket engines that uses
liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...
(LOX) and
RP-1 propellants. Merlin was first used to power the Falcon 1's first stage and is now used on both stages of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles.
Kestrel uses the same propellants and was used as the Falcon 1 rocket's second stage main engine.
Draco and
SuperDraco are
hypergolic
A hypergolic propellant is a rocket propellant combination used in a rocket engine, whose components spontaneously ignite when they come into contact with each other.
The two propellant components usually consist of a fuel and an oxidizer. The ...
liquid-propellant rocket engines. Draco engines are used on the
reaction control system
A reaction control system (RCS) is a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control and translation. Alternatively, reaction wheels are used for attitude control. Use of diverted engine thrust to provide stable attitude contr ...
of the
Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
and
Dragon 2 spacecraft.
The
SuperDraco engine is more powerful, and eight SuperDraco engines provide
launch escape capability for crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft during an abort scenario.
Raptor is a new family of liquid oxygen and liquid
methane
Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...
-fueled
full-flow staged combustion cycle engines to power the first and second stages of the in-development
Starship
A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems.
The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
launch system.
Development versions were test-fired in late 2016, and the engine flew for the first time in 2019, powering the ''Starhopper'' vehicle to an altitude of .
Dragon spacecraft
![Crew Dragon at the ISS for Demo Mission 1 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Crew_Dragon_at_the_ISS_for_Demo_Mission_1_%28cropped%29.jpg)
SpaceX has developed the Dragon spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
. The
first version of Dragon, used only for cargo, was first launched in 2010.
The currently operational second generation Dragon spacecraft, known as
Dragon 2, conducted
its first flight, without crew, to the ISS in early 2019, followed by
a crewed flight of Dragon 2 in 2020.
The
cargo variant of Dragon 2 flew for the first time in December 2020, for a resupply to the Space Station as part of the CRS contract with NASA.
In March 2020 SpaceX revealed the Dragon XL, designed as a resupply spacecraft for NASA's planned
Lunar Gateway space station under a
Gateway Logistics Services
The Gateway Logistics Services (acronymized as GLS) will be a series of uncrewed spaceflights to the Lunar Gateway space station, with the purpose of providing logistical services to the Gateway. Overseen by NASA's Gateway Logistics Element, th ...
(GLS) contract. Dragon XL is planned to launch on the
Falcon Heavy, and is able to transport over to the Gateway. Dragon XL will be docked at the Gateway for six to twelve months at a time.
Autonomous spaceport drone ships
SpaceX routinely returns the
first stage of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets after orbital launches. The rocket flights and land to a predetermined landing site using only its own propulsion systems.
When propellent margins do not permit a return to launch site (RTLS), rockets return to floating landing platform in the ocean, called
autonomous spaceport drone ships (ASDS).
SpaceX also plans to introduce
floating launch platforms. These are modified oil rigs to use in the 2020s to provide a sea launch option for their second-generation launch vehicle: the heavy-lift Starship system, consisting of the Super Heavy booster and Starship second stage. SpaceX has purchased
two deepwater oil rigs and are refitting them to support Starship launches.
Starship
![Starship SN9 Evening Rays](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Starship_SN9_Evening_Rays.jpg)
SpaceX is developing a fully reusable super-heavy lift launch system known as
Starship
A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems.
The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 188 ...
.
It comprises a reusable first stage, called Super Heavy, and the reusable Starship second stage and space vehicle. The system is intended to supersede the company's existing launch vehicle hardware by the early 2020s.
SpaceX initially envisioned a 12-meter-diameter ITS concept in 2016 solely aimed at Mars transit and other interplanetary uses. In 2017 it articulated a smaller 9-meter-diameter vehicle to replace all of its launch service provider capabilities—Earth-orbit; lunar-orbit; interplanetary missions; and potentially, even intercontinental passenger transport on Earth—but do so on a fully reusable set of vehicles with a markedly lower-cost structure.
In 2018, the Starship system was redesigned to use stainless steel instead of
carbon fiber
Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...
construction, to improve performance while drastically decreasing cost. Private passenger
Yusaku Maezawa has contracted to
fly around the Moon in a Starship vehicle in 2023. The company's long-term vision is the development of technology and resources suitable for human
colonization of Mars.
SpaceX started manufacturing the first prototypes of Starship in 2019 at the company's facility in Boca Chica, Texas, later renamed
Starbase
The concepts of space stations and space habitats feature in science fiction. The difference between the two is that habitats are larger and more complex structures intended as permanent homes for substantial populations (though generation ship ...
. It is developing Starship using
iterative design
Iterative design is a design methodology based on a cyclic process of prototyping, testing, analyzing, and refining a product or process. Based on the results of testing the most recent iteration of a design, changes and refinements are made. Th ...
principles, aiming to build and test several prototypes at a fast pace. The first successful suborbital flight and landing of a full Starship prototype was achieved in May 2021.
Starlink
Starlink is an internet satellite constellation under development by SpaceX. It will use 4,425 cross-linked
communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...
s in 1,100 km orbits. Owned and operated by SpaceX, its goal is to increase profitability and cash flow to allow SpaceX to build
its Mars colony.
Development began in 2015, and initial prototype
test-flight satellites were launched on the SpaceX
Paz satellite mission in 2017.
In May 2019 SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites aboard a Falcon 9. By May 2021, it had launched 1737 Starlink satellites.
Initial test operation of the constellation began in late 2020.
![Starlink Mission (47926144123)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Starlink_Mission_%2847926144123%29.jpg)
In March 2017 SpaceX filed plans with the FCC to field a constellation of 7,518 additional
V-band satellites in non-
geosynchronous orbit
A geosynchronous orbit (sometimes abbreviated GSO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis, 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds (one sidereal day). The synchronization of rotation and orbital ...
s to provide communications services.
In February 2019 it formed a sibling company, SpaceX Services, Inc., to license the manufacture and deployment of up to 1,000,000
fixed
Fixed may refer to:
* ''Fixed'' (EP), EP by Nine Inch Nails
* ''Fixed'', an upcoming 2D adult animated film directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
* Fixed (typeface), a collection of monospace bitmap fonts that is distributed with the X Window System
* ...
satellite Earth stations that will communicate with its Starlink system.
On 15 May 2021, SpaceX and Google collaborated to provide data and cloud services for Starlink Enterprise customers.
The planned large number of
Starlink satellites has been criticized by astronomers due to concerns over
light pollution
Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive use of artificial Visible spectrum, lighting. In a descriptive sense, the term ''light pollution'' refers to the effects of any poorly implemented lighting, during the day ...
, with the brightness of Starlink satellites in both optical and radio wavelengths interfering with scientific observations. In response, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades to Starlink satellites aimed at reducing their brightness. The large number of satellites employed by Starlink also creates long-term dangers of
space debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...
collisions
In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great f ...
. However, the satellites are equipped with
krypton
Krypton (from grc, κρυπτός, translit=kryptos 'the hidden one') is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often ...
-fueled
Hall thrusters which allow them to
de-orbit
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the entr ...
at the end of their life. They are also designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.
In October 2022 on
Eutelsat
Eutelsat S.A. is a French satellite operator. Providing coverage over the entire European continent, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas, it is the world's third-largest satellite operator in terms of revenues.
Eutelsat's satellit ...
Hotbird 13F mission, they launched and returned back a hosted promotional payload by
FIFA
FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...
, that was a box powered by
starlink containing two
Adidas Al Rihla
The ''Adidas Al Rihla'' () is a ball for association football produced by Adidas. It was the official match ball of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The ball contains a suspended inertial measurement unit inside its bladder that supplies the v ...
balls on the first stage
B1069.3 for opening its Starlink office in
Doha
Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...
,
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
. These two match balls were to be used in
2022 FIFA World Cup
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...
in
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
.
In December 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program to incorporate military or government entity payloads onboard a Starshield satellite bus (based on Starlink Block v1.5 and v2.0 technology
).
Other projects
In June 2015 SpaceX announced that they would sponsor a
Hyperloop competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
, and would build a long
subscale test track near SpaceX's headquarters for the competitive events.
The company has held the annual competition since 2017.
In collaboration with doctors and academic researchers, SpaceX invited all employees to participate in the creation of a
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
antibody-testing program in 2020. As such 4300 employees volunteered to provide blood-samples resulting in a
peer-reviewed
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
scientific paper crediting eight SpaceX employees as coauthors and suggesting that a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus.
In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a
mini-submarine to assist the
rescue of children stuck in a flooded cavern in Thailand.
Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, urged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a back-up, in case flooding worsened. Engineers at SpaceX and
The Boring Company
The Boring Company (TBC) is an American infrastructure and tunnel construction services company founded by Elon Musk. Its ongoing and proposed projects are designed for intra-city ("loop") transit systems.
After six years TBC has completed one ...
built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9
liquid oxygen
Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...
transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand.
By this time, however, eight of the 12 children had already been rescued using full
face masks and oxygen under
anesthesia
Anesthesia is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), ...
; consequently Thai authorities declined to use the submarine.
Facilities
SpaceX is headquartered in
Hawthorne, California, which also serves as its primary manufacturing plant.
The company operates a research and major operation in
Redmond, Washington
Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010.
Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America.
With an an ...
, owns a test site in Texas
and operates three launch sites, with another under development. SpaceX also operates regional offices in Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
SpaceX was incorporated in the state of
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
.
Headquarters, manufacturing, and refurbishment facilities
![The SpaceX Factory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/The_SpaceX_Factory.jpg)
SpaceX Headquarters is located in the Los Angeles suburb of
Hawthorne, California. The large three-story facility, originally built by
Northrop Corporation
Northrop Corporation was an American aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1939 until its 1994 merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman. The company is known for its development of the flying wing design, most successfully the B-2 Spiri ...
to build
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022.
After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...
fuselages,
houses SpaceX's office space, mission control, and Falcon 9 manufacturing facilities.
The area has one of the largest concentrations of space sector headquarters, facilities, and/or subsidiaries in the U.S., including
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
/
McDonnell Douglas
McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...
main satellite building campuses,
Aerospace Corp.
The Aerospace Corporation is an American nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in El Segundo, California. The corporation provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space m ...
,
Raytheon, NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
,
United States Space Force
The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and the world's only independent space force. Along with its sister branch, the U.S. Air Force, the Space ...
's
Space Systems Command
Space Systems Command (SSC) is the United States Space Force's space development, acquisition, launch, and logistics field command. It is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base, California and manages the United States' space launch ra ...
at
Los Angeles Air Force Base,
Lockheed Martin
The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...
,
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
,
Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
, and
AECOM, etc., with a large pool of aerospace engineers and recent college engineering graduates.
SpaceX utilizes a high degree of
vertical integration
In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...
in the production of its rockets and rocket engines.
SpaceX builds its
rocket engine
A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...
s,
rocket stages,
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
, principal
avionics
Avionics (a blend word, blend of ''aviation'' and ''electronics'') are the Electronics, electronic systems used on aircraft. Avionic systems include communications, Air navigation, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems, ...
and all
software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
in-house in their Hawthorne facility, which is unusual for the space industry.
In January 2015 SpaceX announced it would be entering the satellite production business and global satellite internet business. The first satellite facility is a office building located in
Redmond, Washington
Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 73,256 at the 2020 census, up from 54,144 in 2010.
Redmond is best known as the home of Microsoft and Nintendo of America.
With an an ...
. As of January 2017, a second facility in Redmond was acquired with and has become a research and development laboratory for the satellites. In July 2016, SpaceX acquired an additional creative space in
Irvine, California
Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...
(Orange County) to focus on satellite communications.
Development and test facilities
![2008 SpaceX's Rocket Development facility, McGregor, TX](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/2008_SpaceX%27s_Rocket_Development_facility%2C_McGregor%2C_TX.jpg)
SpaceX operates its Rocket Development and Test Facility in
McGregor, Texas. All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on
rocket test stands,
and low-altitude
VTVL flight testing of the Falcon 9
Grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
in 2012–2013 were carried out at McGregor.
Testing of the much larger Starship prototypes is conducted in the
SpaceX South Texas launch site near
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...
.
The company purchased the McGregor facilities from
Beal Aerospace
Beal Aerospace was a launch vehicle development company founded in February 1997 by Andrew Beal, president of Beal Bank in Dallas, Texas. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas, the goal of the company was to build and operate a privately developed heavy ...
, where it refitted the largest test stand for
Falcon 9 engine testing. SpaceX has made a number of improvements to the facility since its purchase and has also extended the acreage by purchasing several pieces of adjacent farmland. , the McGregor facility had seven test stands that are operated "18 hours a day, six days a week"
and is building more test stands because production is ramping up and the company has a large manifest in the next several years. In addition to routine testing, Dragon capsules (following recovery after an orbital mission), are shipped to McGregor for de-fueling, cleanup, and refurbishment for reuse in future missions.
Launch facilities
SpaceX currently operates three
orbital launch sites, at
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida.
Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...
,
Vandenberg Space Force Base, and
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
, with another under construction near
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...
. SpaceX has indicated that they see a niche for each of the four orbital facilities and that they have sufficient launch business to fill each pad.
The Vandenberg launch site enables highly inclined orbits (66–145°), while Cape Canaveral enables orbits of medium inclination (28.5–51.6°). Before it was retired, all
Falcon 1 launches took place at the
Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site
The Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, commonly referred to as the Reagan Test Site (formerly Kwajalein Missile Range), is a missile test range in Marshall Islands (Pacific Ocean). It covers about and includes rocket launch s ...
on
Omelek Island.
In April 2007 the USAF approved the use of
Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) by SpaceX. The site has been used from 2010 for Falcon 9 launches, mainly to low Earth and geostationary orbits. SLC-40 is not capable of supporting Falcon Heavy launches. As part of SpaceX's booster reusability program, the former
Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral, now renamed
Landing Zone 1, has since 2015 been designated for use for Falcon 9
first-stage booster landings.
Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4E) leased in 2011, is used for payloads to polar orbits. The Vandenberg site can launch both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles,
but cannot launch to low inclination orbits. The neighboring SLC-4W has been converted to Landing Zone 4 since 2015, where SpaceX has successfully landed three Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, the first in October 2018.
On 14 April 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for
Launch Complex 39A
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...
. The pad was subsequently modified to support
Falcon 9 and
Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX launched its
first crewed mission to the ISS from Launch Pad 39A on 30 May 2020. Pad 39A has been prepared since 2019 to eventually accommodate Starship launches. With delays in launch FAA permits for Boca Chica, the 39A Starship preparation was accelerated in 2022.
![The Boca Chica Rocket Factory](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/The_Boca_Chica_Rocket_Factory.jpg)
SpaceX manufactures and flies Starship test vehicles from
Starbase
The concepts of space stations and space habitats feature in science fiction. The difference between the two is that habitats are larger and more complex structures intended as permanent homes for substantial populations (though generation ship ...
at Boca Chica, Texas, with future plans to conduct orbital Starship flights in 2021. SpaceX first publicly announced plans for a launch facility near
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...
in August 2014. The
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) issued the permit in July 2014. SpaceX broke ground on the new launch facility in 2014 with construction ramping up in the latter half of 2015,
with the first
suborbital
A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital r ...
launches from the facility in 2019.
Some residents of
Boca Chica Village
Boca Chica Village, formerly Kennedy Shores, Kopernik Shores, is a small, unincorporated community in Cameron County, Texas, United States. It was formed in the late 1960s, and is still extant as of 2021, although the village proper has changed ...
,
Brownsville, and environmental activists criticized the site along with Starship development program in various aspects.
Contracts
SpaceX won demonstration and actual supply contracts from
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
for the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
(ISS) with technology the company developed. SpaceX is also certified for
U.S. military
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
launches of
Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle
National Security Space Launch (NSSL) — formerly Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) from 1994 to 2019 — is a program of the United States Space Force (USSF) intended to assure access to space for United States Department of Defense and o ...
-class (EELV) payloads. With approximately 30 missions on the manifest for 2018 alone, SpaceX represents over US$12 billion under contract.
Cargo to ISS
![COTS2 Dragon is berthed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/COTS2_Dragon_is_berthed.jpg)
In 2006, SpaceX won a NASA
Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo delivery to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
(ISS), with a possible contract option for crew transport. Through this contract, designed by NASA to provide "seed money" through Space Act Agreements for developing new capabilities, NASA paid SpaceX US$396 million to develop the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft, while SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with their own resources. These
Space Act Agreement
Space Act Agreements (abbreviated SAA) are a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (and subsequent congressional authorizations) that uniquely empowers the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...
s have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development 4–10 times cheaper than if produced by NASA alone.
In December 2010 the launch of the
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
Dragon successfully berthed with the ISS during
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2
SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 (COTS 2), also known as Dragon C2+, was the second test-flight for SpaceX's uncrewed SpaceX Dragon, Cargo Dragon spacecraft. It launched in May 2012 on the third flight of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 launch vehicl ...
in May 2012, a first for a
private spacecraft.
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for delivery of cargo and supplies to the ISS on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded US$1.6 billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions, covering deliveries to 2016.
SpaceX CRS-1
SpaceX CRS-1, also known as SpX-1, was SpaceX, SpaceX's first operational cargo mission to the International Space Station, under their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-1) contract with NASA. It was the third flight for the uncrewed SpaceX Dra ...
, the first of the 12 planned resupply missions, launched in October 2012, achieved orbit, berthed and remained on station for 20 days, before
re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
CRS missions have flown approximately twice a year to the ISS since then. In 2015, NASA extended the Phase 1 contracts by ordering an additional three resupply flights from SpaceX, and then extended the contract further for a total of twenty cargo missions to the ISS.
The final Dragon 1 mission,
SpaceX CRS-20
SpaceX CRS-20 (CRS-20), also known as SpaceX-20, was a Commercial Resupply Service mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 7 March 2020. The mission was contracted by NASA and was flown by SpaceX using Dragon. This was Sp ...
, departed the ISS in April 2020, and
Dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...
was subsequently retired from service. A
second phase
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
of contracts was awarded in January 2016 with SpaceX as one of the awardees. SpaceX will fly up to nine additional CRS flights with the upgraded
Dragon 2 spacecraft.
In March 2020, NASA contracted SpaceX to develop the
Dragon XL
American private space transportation company SpaceX has developed and produced several spacecraft named Dragon. The first family member, now referred to as SpaceX Dragon 1, Dragon 1, flew 23 cargo missions to the ISS between 2010 and 2020 befor ...
spacecraft to send supplies to the
Lunar Gateway space station. Dragon XL will be launched on a Falcon Heavy.
Crewed
SpaceX is responsible for the transportation of NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The NASA contracts started as part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, aimed at developing commercially operated spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS. The first contract was awarded to SpaceX in 2011,
followed by another in 2012 to continue development and testing of its
Dragon 2 spacecraft.
In September 2014, NASA chose SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies that would be funded to develop systems to transport U.S. crews to and from the ISS.
SpaceX won US$2.6 billion to complete and certify Dragon 2 by 2017. The contracts called for at least one crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard. Once Crew Dragon received NASA human-spaceflight certification, the contract required SpaceX to conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station.
SpaceX completed the first key flight test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a
Pad Abort Test A pad abort test is a kind of test of a launch escape system which conducted by setting the system along with the spacecraft still on the ground and let the system activate to carry the spacecraft flying away, then separate in the air and make the s ...
, in May 2015, and successfully conducted a full uncrewed test flight in early 2019. The capsule docked to the ISS and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2020, SpaceX conducted an
in-flight abort test, the last test flight before flying crew, in which the Dragon spacecraft fired its launch escape engines in a simulated abort scenario.
On 30 May 2020, the
Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was launched to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
with NASA astronauts
Bob Behnken and
Doug Hurley, the first time a crewed vehicle had launched from the U.S. since 2011, and the first commercial crewed launch to the
ISS.
The
Crew-1 mission was successfully launched to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
on 16 November 2020, with
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
astronauts
Michael Hopkins,
Victor Glover and
Shannon Walker
Shannon Walker (born June 4, 1965) is an American physicist and a NASA astronaut selected in 2004. She launched on her first mission into space on June 25, 2010, onboard Soyuz TMA-19 and spent over 163 days in space.
She returned to space for ...
along with
JAXA
The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into orb ...
astronaut
Soichi Noguchi, all members of the
Expedition 64 crew. On 23 April 2021,
Crew-2
SpaceX Crew-2 was the second operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the third overall crewed orbital flight of the Commercial Crew Program. The mission was launched on 23 April 2021 at 09:49:02 UTC, and docked to the Internationa ...
was launched to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...
with NASA astronauts
Shane Kimbrough and
K. Megan McArthur
Katherine Megan McArthur (born August 30, 1971) is an American oceanographer, engineer, and NASA astronaut. She has served as a Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM) for both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). Megan McArthur has f ...
, JAXA astronaut
Akihiko Hoshide
is a Japanese engineer, JAXA astronaut, and former Commander of the International Space Station. On August 30, 2012, Hoshide became the third Japanese astronaut to walk in space.
Early life and education
He was born in 1968 in Tokyo, Japan.
H ...
, and
ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
astronaut
Thomas Pesquet. The
Crew-2
SpaceX Crew-2 was the second operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft, and the third overall crewed orbital flight of the Commercial Crew Program. The mission was launched on 23 April 2021 at 09:49:02 UTC, and docked to the Internationa ...
mission successfully docked on 24 April 2021.
SpaceX also offers paid
crewed spaceflights for private individuals. The first of these missions,
Inspiration4
Inspiration4 (stylized as Inspirati④n) was a 2021 human spaceflight operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' on 16 September 2021 at 00:02:56 UTC from Kennedy Sp ...
, launched in 2021 on behalf of
Shift4 Payments
Shift4 is an American payment processing company publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company, founded in 1999 by the then 16-year-old Jared Isaacman, processes payments for over 200,000 busin ...
CEO
Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman (born February 11, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, pilot, philanthropist, and commercial astronaut. He is the founder, CEO of Draken International, a private air force provider and Shift4 Payments, a payment processor. As of ...
. The mission launched the
Crew Dragon ''Resilience'' from the Florida
Kennedy Space Center
The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...
's
Launch Complex 39A
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) is the first of Launch Complex 39's three launch pads, located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. The pad, along with Launch Complex 39B, were first designed for the Saturn V launch vehicle. Ty ...
atop a
Falcon 9 launch vehicle
A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...
, placed the Dragon
capsule into
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
, and ended successfully about three days later, when the ''Resilience'' splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. All four crew members received commercial astronaut training from SpaceX. The training included lessons in orbital mechanics, operating in a microgravity environment, stress testing, emergency-preparedness training and mission simulations.
National defense
![STP-2 Mission (48129211908)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/STP-2_Mission_%2848129211908%29.jpg)
In 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an
Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, allowing the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
to purchase up to US$100 million worth of launches from the company. Three years later,
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
announced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for up to US$1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded.
In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
(DoD). The United States Air Force
Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EELV-class missions:
Deep Space Climate Observatory
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by Space ...
(DSCOVR) and
Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched on a
Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2015, while STP-2 was launched on a
Falcon Heavy on 25 June 2019.
The
Falcon 9 v1.1 was certified for
National Security Space Launch (NSSL) in 2015, allowing SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloads classified under national security.
This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by
United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, a ...
(ULA) over U.S. Air Force launches of classified payloads.
In April 2016, the U.S. Air Force awarded the first such national security launch to SpaceX to launch the second
GPS III satellite for US$82.7 million. This was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions. SpaceX also launched the third GPS III launch on 20 June 2020. In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional US$290 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three GPS III satellites.
The U.S.
National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also purchased launches from SpaceX, with the first taking place on 1 May 2017. In February 2019, SpaceX secured a US$297 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three national security missions, all slated to launch no earlier than FY 2021. In August 2020, the
U.S. Space Force
The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and the world's only independent space force. Along with its sister branch, the U.S. Air Force, the Space ...
awarded its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts for the following 5–7 years. SpaceX won a contract for US$316 million for one launch. In addition, SpaceX will handle 40% of the U.S. military's satellite launch requirements over the period.
SpaceX also designs and launches
custom military satellites for the
Space Development Agency
The Space Development Agency (SDA) began as a directorate of the United States Department of Defense's office of the under secretary of defense for research and engineering ( OUSD (R&E)) which supports space development in the interests of U.S. ...
as part of a new missile defense system in low Earth orbit. The constellation would give the United States capabilities to sense, target and potentially intercept nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons launched from anywhere on Earth. Both China and Russia brought concerns to the United Nations about the program, and various organizations warn it could be destabilizing and trigger an
arms race
An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
in space.
Launch market competition and pricing pressure
SpaceX's low launch prices, especially for
communications satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...
s flying to
geostationary transfer orbit
A geosynchronous transfer orbit or geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) is a type of geocentric orbit. Satellite, Satellites that are destined for geosynchronous orbit, geosynchronous (GSO) or geostationary orbit (GEO) are (almost) always put into ...
(GTO), have resulted in market pressure on its competitors to lower their own prices.
Prior to 2013, the openly competed comsat launch market had been dominated by Arianespace (flying the
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...
) and
International Launch Services (flying the
Proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
).
With a published price of US$56.5 million per launch to
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...
, Falcon 9 rockets were the cheapest in the industry.
European satellite operators are pushing the ESA to reduce launch prices of the
Ariane 5
Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift space launch vehicle developed and operated by Arianespace for the European Space Agency (ESA). It is launched from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) in French Guiana. It has been used to deliver payloads int ...
and the future
Ariane 6 rockets as a result of competition from SpaceX.
SpaceX ended the
United Launch Alliance
United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, a ...
(ULA) monopoly of U.S. military payloads when it began to compete for national security launches. In 2015, anticipating a slump in domestic, military, and spy launches, ULA stated that it would go out of business unless it won commercial satellite launch orders. To that end, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce in order to decrease launch costs by half.
Congressional testimony by SpaceX in 2017 suggested that the NASA
Space Act Agreement
Space Act Agreements (abbreviated SAA) are a type of legal agreement specified in the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 (and subsequent congressional authorizations) that uniquely empowers the National Aeronautics and Space Administration ...
process of "setting only a high-level requirement for cargo transport to the space station
hile
Hile ( ne, हिले) is a hill town located in the Eastern Part of Nepal, 13 km north of the regional center of Dhankuta Bazar. At an elevation of 1948 meters, it is the main route to other hilly districts like Bhojpur and Sankhuwasabh ...
leaving the details to industry" had allowed SpaceX to design and develop the Falcon 9 rocket on its own at a substantially lower cost. According to NASA's own independently verified numbers, SpaceX's total development cost for the Falcon 9 rocket, including the Falcon 1 rocket, was estimated at US$390 million. In 2011, NASA estimated that it would have cost the agency about US$4 billion to develop a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster based upon NASA's traditional contracting processes, about ten times more.
In May 2020, NASA administrator
Jim Bridenstine
James Frederick Bridenstine (born June 15, 1975) is an American military officer and politician who served as the 13th administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Bridenstine was the United States representative fo ...
remarked that thanks to NASA's investments into SpaceX, the United States has 70% of the commercial launch market, a major improvement since 2012 when there were no commercial launches from the country.
Corporate affairs
Board of directors
Leadership changes
In November 2022, the company announced COO Gwynne Shotwell and vice president
Mark Juncosa
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* Fi ...
would oversee Starbase, its Texas launch facility, along with Omead Afshar, who at the time oversaw operations for Tesla in Texas. Shyamal Patel, who was senior director of operations at the site, would shift to its Cape Canaveral site. ''
CNBC
CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
'' reported that these executive moves demonstrated "the sense of urgency within the company to get Starship flying."
Workplace culture
According to former NASA deputy administrator
Lori Garver
Lori Beth Garver (born May 22, 1961, in Lansing, Michigan) is a former Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). She was nominated on May 24, 2009, by President Barack Obama, along with Charles Bolden as ...
, the company overall has a male-dominated employee culture, similar to that of the spaceflight industry in general. In December 2021, claims of workplace sexual harassment from five former SpaceX employees, ranging from interns to full engineers, were published. The former employees claimed to have experienced unwanted advances and uncomfortable interactions. Additionally, the accounts included claims of a culture of
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
existing at the company and one where complaints made to executives, managers, and human resources officers went largely unaddressed.
In May 2022, a Business Insider article alleged that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct with a SpaceX flight attendant in a private jet in 2016 citing an anonymous friend of a flight attendant. In response, some employees collaborated on an open letter condemning "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior".
It also asks the company to clearly define SpaceX's "no-asshole" and "
zero tolerance" policies, which it says is unequally enforced from one employee to the next. The next day, Gwynne Shotwell announced that those employees who were involved with the letter had been terminated and claimed that unsponsored, unsolicited surveys were repeatedly sent to thousands of people during the work day, and that some felt pressured to sign the letter.
The company has also been described as having a work culture that pushes employees to work excessively, and was described as a
burnout
Burnout or burn-out may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Burnout'' (film), a 2017 Moroccan film
* ''Burn Out'' (film), a 2017 French film
* Burnout (ride), a Funfields amusement ride in Australia
* ''Burnout'' (series), a racing game series created by ...
culture.
According to a memo by
Blue Origin
Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...
, SpaceX expected very long work hours, work on weekends, and limited use of holidays.
References
; Bundled references
Further reading
* Berger, Eric. ''Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX''. William Collins (2021).
* Davenport, Christian. ''The Space Barons; Elon Musk. Jeff Bezos, and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos''. PublicAffairs (2018).
* Fernholz, Tim. ''Rocket Billionaires: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the New Space Race''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2018).
* Vance, Ashlee. ''Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future''. Penguin Random House UK (2015).
External links
*
SpaceX – ISS Docking Simulator
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