These milestones delivered the company much-needed investment and SpaceX sought to diversify its sources of income. In 2019, the first operational satellite of the Starlink internet satellite constellation came online. In subsequent years, Starlink generated the bulk of SpaceX's income and paved the way for its Starshield military counterpart. In 2020, SpaceX began to operate its Dragon 2 capsules to deliver crewed missions for NASA and private entities. Around this time, SpaceX began building test prototypes for Starship, which is the largest launch vehicle in history and aims to fully realize the company's vision of a fully-reusable, cost-effective and adaptable launch vehicle. SpaceX is also developing its own space suit and astronaut via its Polaris program[11] as well as developing the human lander for lunar missions under NASA's Artemis program.[12] SpaceX is not publicly traded; a space industry newspaper estimated that SpaceX has a revenue of over US$10 billion in 2024.[13]
In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated US$100,000 to his Mars Society, joining its board of directors for a short time.[14]:30–31 He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars.[15][16] Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell.[17]
Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael Griffin, who later became the 11th Administrator of NASA, but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive.[18][19] On the flight home, Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead.[19] By applying vertical integration,[18] using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible,[19] and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch costs.[19]
In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer,[20]:11Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found the company Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson.[20][21] SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees.[22] Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees.[20]:22
Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.[23]
In 2004, SpaceX protested against NASA to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of a sole-source contract awarded to Kistler Aerospace. Before the GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract, and formed the COTS program.[20]:109–110[28] In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft.[29] In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $396million to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program.[30]
The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new US launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike.[25][31][32] The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well,[33] and consequently Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time.[20]:178–182 Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress.[20]:216
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 $30million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarding $1.6billion to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company.[20]:217–221 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.[34]Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier.[35][20]:222
2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts
Video of the first launch of Falcon 9
SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5.[36] The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9, a reusableheavier lift vehicle. Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006.[37] The overall contract award was $278million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon.[37] As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft.
The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives.[38] By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.[39]
In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a $75million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the ISS.[40] NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012.[41]
In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk[42] and his seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth $875million on private markets,[43] valuing SpaceX at $1.3billion.[44] In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.[45] After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to $2.4billion or $20/share.[46][47] By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $1billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $200million, with Musk investing approximately $100million and other investors having put in about $100million.[48]
SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of the landing technology.[49] The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.[49]
2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth
Launch of Falcon 9 carrying ORBCOMM OG2-M1, July 2014
SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide.[50] That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX.[51][52] Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA).[53] The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over $400million over the years.[54] In September 2014, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, Kevin Crigler, 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.[41]
In January 2015, SpaceX raised $1billion in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments, in exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at approximately $12billion.[55] The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.[56]
The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem was traced to a failed 2-foot-long steel strut that held a heliumpressure vessel, which broke free due to the force of acceleration. This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing the failure.[57]
SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20.[58] In April 2016, the company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean.[59] 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.[60]
A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when a Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test. The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at $200million, was destroyed.[61] The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels.[62] 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.[63]
In March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space.[64] The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket.[65]
2017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider
In July 2017, the company raised $350million, which raised its valuation to $21billion.[66] In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts.[67] By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about $12billion in contract revenue.[68] The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers.[69] This made SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches.[70]
In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company,[71] and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, using a small number of SpaceX employees,[72] which was completed in May 2018,[73] and opened to the public in December 2018.[74] During 2018, The Boring Company was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk.[74]
Since 2019: Starship, first crewed launches, Starlink and general
In 2019 SpaceX raised $1.33billion of capital across three funding rounds.[75] By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $33.3billion[76] and reached $36billion by March 2020.[77]
On 19 August 2020, after a $1.9billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to $46billion.[78][79][80]
In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $1.61billion in an equity round from 99 investors[81] at a per share value of approximately $420,[80] raising the company valuation to approximately $74billion. By 2021, SpaceX had raised more than $6billion 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.[81] By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $100.3billion.[82] On 16 April 2021, Starship HLS won a contract to play a critical role in the NASA crewed spaceflight Artemis program.[83] By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink.[84] A new round of financing in 2022 valued SpaceX at $127billion.[85]
In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas, landing a booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021.[86] Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel,[87][88] after he announced a $100million 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.[89][90]
In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (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 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[91] Since that invasion and in the greater war between Russia and Ukraine, Starlink was extensively used.[92]
In 2022, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year.[93][94][non-primary source needed] SpaceX launched a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, with 61 launches in total. All but one (a Falcon Heavy in November) was on a Falcon 9 rocket.[93]
In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire its parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $2.2 million.[95][96]
On 16 July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas. Musk said this was because the recently passed California AB1955 bill "and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies".[97] This new law in California bans school districts from requiring that teachers notify parents about changes to a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity.[98] The headquarters officially moved to Brownsville, Texas in August 2024, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State.[99]
The move to relocate SpaceX's headquarters was seen as largely symbolic, at least in the short term. The Hawthorne facility continues to support the company's Falcon launch vehicles, which was SpaceX's workhorse product in 2024.
SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission featured the first-ever private spacewalk, marking a major milestone in commercial space exploration.[100]
Starship
Starship in launch position
In January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance the Starship and Starlink projects.[101] The purpose of the Starship vehicle is to enable large-scale transit of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.[102] SpaceX's Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with a payload capacity of 100+ tons.[103][104] 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.
On 20 April 2023, Starship's first orbital flight test ended in a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, multiple engines in the booster progressively failed, causing the vehicle to reach max q later than planned. "Max q" is the theoretical point of maximal mechanical stress which occurs during the launch sequence of a space vehicle. In the case of a rocket that must be self-destructed during its ascent, max q occurs at the point of self-destruction. Eventually, the vehicle lost control and spun erratically until the automated flight termination system was activated, which intentionally destroyed the rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and other individuals familiar with the space industry have referred to the test flight as a success.[105][106]
Musk said at the time that it would take "six to eight weeks" to get the infrastructure prepared for another launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX executive stated the company had been ready to launch the next test flight since September. He accused government regulators of disrupting the project's progress, adding the delay could lead to China beating US astronauts back to the Moon.[107][108]
In early March 2024 SpaceX announced that it was targeting 14 March as the tentative launch date for its next uncrewed Starship launch configuration flight test, pending the issuance of a "launch license" by the FAA. This license was granted on 13 March 2024.[113] On 14 March 2024 at 13:25 UTC, Starship launched for the 3rd time and for the first time Starship reached its planned suborbital trajectory. The flight ended with the booster experiencing a malfunction shortly before landing and the ship being lost during reentry over the Indian Ocean.[103][104]
On 4 June 2024, SpaceX received the launch license for Starship's 4th test flight. The licensure itself was notable in that it was the first time that the FAA included a clause that would allow SpaceX to launch subsequent test flights without a mishap investigation, provided that they met a similar launch profile and used the same specification of hardware. The provision could prove to speed the development timeline.[114]
On 12 October 2024, SpaceX received FAA approval for Starship's 5th test flight.[115]
SpaceX plans to launch Starship on its 6th test flight no earlier than 18 November 2024.[116]
Crewed launches
NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley (left) and Robert Behnken (right) wearing custom-fit spacesuits designed by SpaceX.
A significant milestone was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years.[117][118] The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida.[119]
Starlink
In May 2019, SpaceX launched the first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning to deploy what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year.[120] In 2022, most SpaceX launches focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 6,000 satellites in orbit.[121]
In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.[123]
Summary of achievements
Date
Achievement
Flight
28 September 2008
First privately funded, fully liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.[124]
The landing of a Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage at Cape Canaveral in July 2019. VTVL technologies are used in many of SpaceX's launch vehicles.
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.
Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of placing several hundred kilograms into low Earth orbit. It launched five times between 2006 and 2009, of which two were successful.[144] The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.[124]
Falcon 9 is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 22,800 kilograms (50,265lb) to orbit, competing with the Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets, as well as other launch providers around the world. It has nine Merlin engines in its first stage. The Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on 4 June 2010. Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on 22 May 2012 and launched the first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station (ISS).[45] 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 retro propulsively land, be recovered, and flown again.[145]
Both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are certified to conduct launches for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL).[149][150] As of 14 November 2024, the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been launched 408 times, resulting in 405 full mission successes, one partial success, and one in-flight failure. In addition, a Falcon 9 experienced a pre-flight failure before a static fire test in 2016.[151][152]
SpaceX is developing a fully reusable super-heavy lift launch system known as Starship. It comprises a reusable first stage, called Super Heavy, and the reusable Starship second stage space vehicle. As of 2017[update], the system was intended to supersede the company's existing launch vehicle hardware by the early 2020s.[153][154]
Merlin is a family of rocket engines that uses liquid oxygen (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.[159] Kestrel uses the same propellants and was used as the Falcon 1 rocket's second-stage main engine.[156][160]
Raptor is a new family of liquid oxygen and liquid methane-fueled full-flow staged combustion cycle engines to power the first and second stages of the in-development Starship launch system.[155] Development versions were test-fired in late 2016,[162] and the engine flew for the first time in 2019, powering the Starhopper vehicle to an altitude of 20m (66ft).[163]
SpaceX Dragon 2 spacecraft, designed to deliver crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station (cargo version shown)
SpaceX has developed the Dragon spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS).
The first-generation Dragon 1 spacecraft was used only for cargo operations. It was developed with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. After a successful COTS demonstration flight in 2010, SpaceX was chosen to receive a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.[38]
The currently operational second-generation Dragon 2 spacecraft conducted its first flight, without crew, to the ISS in early 2019, followed by a crewed flight of Dragon 2 in 2020.[117] It was developed with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Crew Program program. The cargo variant of Dragon 2 flew for the first time in December 2020, for a resupply to the ISS as part of the CRS contract with NASA.[164]
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 (GLS) contract.[165] Dragon XL is planned to launch on the Falcon Heavy, and is able to transport over 5,000kg (11,000lb) to the Gateway. Dragon XL will be docked at the Gateway for six to twelve months at a time.[166]
SpaceX routinely returns the first stage of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets after orbital launches. The rocket lands at a predetermined landing site using only its propulsion systems.[169] When propellant margins do not permit a return to a launch site (RTLS), rockets return to a floating landing platform in the ocean, called autonomous spaceport drone ships (ASDS).[170]
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.
Sixty Starlink satellites stacked together before deployment
Starlink is an internet satellite constellation under development by Starlink Services, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX,[7][171] that consists of thousands of cross-linked communications satellites in ~550km orbits. Its goal is to address the significant unmet demand worldwide for low-cost broadband capabilities.[172] 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.[173] Initial test operation of the constellation began in late 2020[174] and first orders were taken in early 2021.[175] Customers were told to expect internet service speeds of 50Mbit/s to 150Mbit/s and latency from 20 ms to 40 ms.[176] In December 2022, Starlink reached over 1 million subscribers worldwide.[177]
The planned large number of Starlink satellites has been criticized by astronomers due to concerns over light pollution,[178][179][180] with the brightness of Starlink satellites in both optical and radio wavelengths interfering with scientific observations.[181] In response, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades to Starlink satellites aimed at reducing their brightness.[182] The large number of satellites employed by Starlink also creates long-term dangers of space debris collisions.[183][184] However, the satellites are equipped with krypton-fueled Hall thrusters which allow them to de-orbit at the end of their life. They are also designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.[185]
In December 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program to incorporate military or government entity payloads on board a Starlink-derived satellite bus. The Space Development Agency is a key customer procuring satellites for a space-based missile defense system.[186][187]
In June 2024, SpaceX introduced a compact version of its Starlink antennas, the "Starlink Mini," designed for mobile satellite internet use. Offered for $599 in an early access release, it was more expensive than the base model. The Mini antenna, half the size and one-third the weight of the Standard version, featured a built-in WiFi router, lower power consumption, and over 100 Mbps download speeds.[188]
In June 2015, SpaceX announced that it would sponsor a Hyperloop competition, and would build a 1.6km (0.99mi) long subscale test track near SpaceX's headquarters for the competitive events.[189][190] The company held the annual competition from 2017 to 2019.[191]
COVID-19 antibody-testing program
In collaboration with doctors and academic researchers, SpaceX invited all employees to participate in the creation of a COVID-19 antibody-testing program in 2020. As such, 4300 employees volunteered to provide blood samples resulting in a peer-reviewed 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.[192][193]
Other
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.[194]Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, encouraged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a backup in case flooding worsened. However, Stanton later concluded that the mini-submarine would not work and said that Musk's involvement "distracted from the rescue effort".[195][196] Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand.[197][198] Thai authorities ultimately declined to use the submarine, stating that it wasn't practical for the rescue mission.[194]
Facilities
SpaceX is headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, where it manufactures and launches its Starship vehicle. However most of the company's operations are based out of its office in Hawthorne, California where it was previously headquartered, where it builds Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft, and where it houses its mission control.
The company also operates a Starlink satellite manufacturing facilities in Redmond, Washington, a rocket development and test facility in McGregor, Texas,[199] and maintains an office in the Washington, D.C. area, close to key government customers.[200]
SpaceX has two active launch sites in Florida, one active launch site in California and one active launch site at Starbase in Texas.
Hawthorne, CA: Falcon and Dragon manufacturing, mission control
SpaceX operates a large facility in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California. The three-story building, originally built by Northrop Corporation to build Boeing 747 fuselages,[201] houses SpaceX's office space, mission control, and Falcon 9 manufacturing facilities.[202]
The Hawthorne facility was SpaceX's headquarters until August 2024. However, the move to relocate SpaceX's headquarters was seen as largely symbolic, at least in the short term, as the facility will remain to the company’s operations.[203]
SpaceX manufactures and flies Starship test vehicles from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas, having announced first plans for the launch facility in August 2014.[204][205] The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the permit in July 2014.[206] SpaceX broke ground on the new launch facility in 2014 with construction ramping up in the latter half of 2015,[207] with the first suborbital launches from the facility in 2019[202] and orbital launches starting in 2023.
SpaceX has faced increased scrutiny over the environmental impact of its Starbase facility.[208][209][210] In August 2024, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality cited SpaceX for violating environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into water near the Boca Chica launch site.[211] The EPA fined SpaceX approximately $150,000 for allegedly discharging "industrial wastewater" and violating the Clean Water Act.[212]
McGregor, TX: Rocket Development and Test Facility
Aerial view of the SpaceX McGregor engine testing facility, 2008
SpaceX's Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas is a rocket engine test facility. Every rocket engine and thruster manufactured by SpaceX must pass through McGregor for final testing being used on flight missions.[213][214] The facility also serves as a testing ground for various components and engines during the research and development process.[215] In addition to engine testing, after splashdown and recovery, Dragon spacecraft make a stop at McGregor to have their hazardous hypergolic propellant fuels removed, before the capsules continue on to Hawthorne for refurbishment.[213]
SpaceX calls the facility the most advanced and active rocket engine test facility in the world, and said that as of 2024[update], over 7,000 tests had been conducted at the facility since it opened, with seven engine test fires on a typical day, across more than a dozen test stands.[216] Despite its low-profile compared to the company's other facilities, is a critical part of SpaceX's operations, and company president and COO Gwynne Shotwell maintains her primary office in McGregor.[217][213]
Originally the site of the Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant during World War II,[215] the facility was later used by Beal Aerospace before being leased by SpaceX in 2003.[218] The company has since expanded it significantly from 256 acres (104ha) in 2003[215] to 4,000 acres (1,600ha) by 2015.[216] In July 2021, SpaceX announced plans to build a second production facility for Raptor engines at McGregor. This expansion is expected to significantly increase SpaceX's production capacity, with the goal of producing 800 to 1,000 Raptor engines per year.[219][220]
Starlink manufacturing facilities
Starlink user terminal on the sidewalk of a residential home.
SpaceX's Starlink subsidiary operates over two main facilities. Satellite manufacturing takes place near Seattle, Washington while user terminal manufacturing takes place near Austin, Texas.
Starlink's satellite development and manufacturing operations campus occupies over 314,000 square feet (29,200m2) in at least six buildings located in Redmond, Washington, east of Seattle. The first building opened in early 2015,[221] and the company later expanded into five buildings on the Redmond Ridge Corporate Center.[222][223]
Starlink opened a user terminal manufacturing facility in Bastrop, Texas, east of Austin in December 2023. In its first nine months of operation, the one-million-square-foot (93,000m2) facility produced one million user terminals and was on track to become the largest factory for printed circuit boards in the United States.[224]
Falcon Heavy Side Boosters landing on LZ1 and LZ2 at Cape Canaveral
SpaceX operates four orbital launch sites, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for Falcon rockets, and Starbase near Brownsville, Texas for Starship. 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.[225] The Vandenberg launch site enables highly inclined orbits (66–145°), while Cape Canaveral and Kennedy enable orbits of medium inclination (28.5–55°).[226] Larger inclinations, including SSO, are possible from Florida by overflying Cuba.[227]
Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4E) was leased from the military in 2011 and is used for payloads to polar orbits. The Vandenberg site can launch both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles,[231] but cannot launch to low inclination orbits. The neighboring SLC-4W was converted to Landing Zone 4 in 2015 for booster landings.[232]
On 14 April 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.[233] The pad was subsequently modified to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. As of 2024[update] it is the only pad that supports Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX launched its first crewed mission to the ISS from Launch Pad 39A on 30 May 2020.[234] Pad 39A has been prepared since 2019 to eventually accommodate Starship launches. With delays in launch FAA permits for Boca Chica, Texas, the 39A Starship preparation was accelerated in 2022.[235]
SpaceX won demonstration and actual supply contracts from NASA for the International Space Station (ISS) with technology the company developed. SpaceX is also certified for U.S. military launches of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class (EELV) payloads. With approximately thirty missions on the manifest for 2018 alone, SpaceX represented over $12billion under contract.[69]
In 2006, SpaceX won a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo delivery to the ISS, with a possible contract option for crew transport.[236] Through this contract, designed by NASA to provide "seed money" through Space Act Agreements for developing new capabilities, NASA paid SpaceX $396million to develop the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft, while SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with their resources.[237] These Space Act Agreements have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development 4–10 times less expensive than if produced by NASA alone.[238]
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) is a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the ISS on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions, covering deliveries to 2016.[241]SpaceX CRS-1, 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.[242]
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.[243][241][244] The final Dragon 1 mission, SpaceX CRS-20, departed the ISS in April 2020, and Dragon was subsequently retired from service. A second phase 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.[245][246] In March 2020, NASA contracted SpaceX to develop the Dragon XL spacecraft to send supplies to the Lunar Gateway space station. Dragon XL will be launched on a Falcon Heavy.[247]
NASA astronauts inside the Dragon spacecraft during the Crew-1 mission rendezvous with the International Space Station
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,[248][249] followed by another in 2012 to continue development and testing of its Dragon 2 spacecraft.[250]
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.[251] SpaceX won $2.6billion 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.[251]
SpaceX completed the first key flight test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a Pad Abort Test, in May 2015,[252] 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.[253] 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.[254]
SpaceX also offers paid crewed spaceflights for private individuals. The first of these missions, Inspiration4, launched in 2021 on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Resilience from the Florida Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle, placed the Dragon capsule into low Earth orbit, 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.[260]
National defense
Launch of the STP-2 mission on a Falcon Heavy in 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.[149] This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by United Launch Alliance (ULA) over U.S. Air Force launches of classified payloads.[264] 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 $82.7million.[265] This was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions.[266] SpaceX also launched the third GPS III launch on 20 June 2020.[267] In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional $290million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three GPS III satellites.[268]
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also purchased launches from SpaceX, with the first taking place on 1 May 2017.[269] In February 2019, SpaceX secured a $297million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three national security missions, all slated to launch no earlier than FY 2021.[270] In August 2020, the U.S. Space Force awarded its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts for the following 5–7 years. SpaceX won a contract for $316million for one launch. In addition, SpaceX will handle 40% of the U.S. military's satellite launch requirements over the period.[271]
SpaceX also designs and launches custom military satellites for the Space Development Agency as part of a new missile defense system in low Earth orbit.[272] The constellation would give the United States capabilities to sense, target and potentially intercept nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons launched from anywhere on Earth.[273] Both China and Russia brought concerns to the United Nations about the program,[274] and various organizations warn it could be destabilizing and trigger an arms race in space.[275][276]
In March 2024, Reuters reported that, as part of a $1.8 billion contract signed with the National Reconnaissance Office in 2021, SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites. This new network, Reuters reported, would be able to operate as a swarm in low orbits.[277]
SpaceX's low launch prices, especially for communications satellites flying to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), have resulted in market pressure on its competitors to lower their own prices.[18] Prior to 2013, the openly competed comsat launch market had been dominated by Arianespace (flying the Ariane 5) and International Launch Services (flying the Proton).[278] With a published price of $56.5million per launch to low Earth orbit, Falcon 9 rockets were the least expensive in the industry.[279] European satellite operators are pushing the ESA to reduce launch prices of the Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 rockets as a result of competition from SpaceX.[280]
SpaceX ended the United Launch Alliance (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.[281] To that end, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce to decrease launch costs by half.[282][283]
Congressional testimony by SpaceX in 2017 suggested that the NASA Space Act Agreement process of "setting only a high-level requirement for cargo transport to the space station [while] 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 $390million. In 2011, NASA estimated that it would have cost the agency about $4billion to develop a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster based upon NASA's traditional contracting processes, about ten times more.[238] In May 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine 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.[284]
As of 2024, SpaceX operates a Rideshare and Bandwagon (mid inclination) programs. This provides additional competition for small satellite launchers.[285]
President of global partnerships and corporate development, Google[328]
Leadership changes
In November 2022, the company announced COO Gwynne Shotwell and vice president Mark Juncosa 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 reported that these executive moves demonstrated "the sense of urgency within the company to get Starship flying."[329][330][331]
Workplace culture
According to former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, the company overall has a male-dominated employee culture, similar to that of the spaceflight industry in general.[332] In December 2021, claims of workplace sexual harassment from five former SpaceX employees, ranging from interns to full engineers, were published.[333] The former employees claimed to have experienced unwanted advances and uncomfortable interactions.[334] Additionally, the accounts included claims of a culture of sexual harassment existing at the company and one where complaints made to executives, managers, and human resources officers went largely unaddressed.[335]
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 the flight attendant.[336] In response, some employees collaborated on an open letter condemning "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior".[337] 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 sent to employees during the work day and that some felt pressured to sign the letter.[338]
The company has also been described as having a work culture that pushes employees to work excessively and is described as fostering a burnout culture.[339] According to a memo by Blue Origin, a rival aerospace company with a history of lawsuits and anti-SpaceX political lobbying,[340][341][342] SpaceX expected very long work hours, work on weekends, and limited use of holidays.[339]
In June 2024, eight ex-employees, the same who had previously been fired for penning the open letter against Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against Musk and SpaceX alleging sexual harassment and discrimination.[343][344]
Related Research Articles
A reusable launch vehicle has parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as rocket engines and boosters can also be reused, though reusable spacecraft may be launched on top of an expendable launch vehicle. Reusable launch vehicles do not need to make these parts for each launch, therefore reducing its launch cost significantly. However, these benefits are diminished by the cost of recovery and refurbishment.
Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX. They are currently a part of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, and were formerly used on the Falcon 1. Merlin engines use RP-1 and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine was originally designed for sea recovery and reuse, but since 2016 the entire Falcon 9 booster is recovered for reuse by landing vertically on a landing pad using one of its nine Merlin engines.
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, was first constructed in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V launch vehicle, and has been used to support NASA crewed space flight missions, including the historic Apollo 11 moon landing and the Space Shuttle. The site is currently leased by SpaceX and supports launches of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on 4 June 2010, and the first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) launched on 8 October 2012. In 2020, it became the first commercial rocket to launch humans to orbit. The Falcon 9 has an exceptional safety record, with 394 successful launches, two in-flight failures, one partial failure and one pre-flight destruction. It is the most-launched American orbital rocket in history.
Dragon is a family of spacecraft developed and produced by American private space transportation company SpaceX.
Vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) is a form of takeoff and landing for rockets. Multiple VTVL craft have flown. A notable VTVL vehicle was the Apollo Lunar Module which delivered the first humans to the Moon. Building on the decades of development, SpaceX utilised the VTVL concept for its flagship Falcon 9 first stage, which has delivered over three hundred successful powered landings so far.
Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit, and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX.
SpaceX manufactures launch vehicles to operate its launch provider services and to execute its various exploration goals. SpaceX currently manufactures and operates the Falcon 9 Block 5 family of medium-lift launch vehicles and the Falcon Heavy family of heavy-lift launch vehicles – both of which are powered by SpaceX Merlin engines and employ VTVL technologies to reuse the first stage. As of 2024, the company is also developing the fully reusable Starship launch system, which will replace Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon.
SpaceX has privately funded the development of orbital launch systems that can be reused many times, similar to the reusability of aircraft. SpaceX has developed technologies over the last decade to facilitate full and rapid reuse of space launch vehicles. The project's long-term objectives include returning a launch vehicle first stage to the launch site within minutes and to return a second stage to the launch pad, following orbital realignment with the launch site and atmospheric reentry in up to 24 hours. SpaceX's long term goal would have been reusability of both stages of their orbital launch vehicle, and the first stage would be designed to allow reuse a few hours after return. Development of reusable second stages for Falcon 9 was later abandoned in favor of developing Starship. However, SpaceX still developed reusable payload fairings for the Falcon 9.
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An autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) is a modified ocean-going barge equipped with propulsion systems to maintain precise position and a large landing platform. SpaceX developed these vessels to recover the first stage of its launch vehicles. By recovering and reusing these boosters, SpaceX has significantly reduced the cost of space launch.
Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to over 100 countries and territories. It also aims to provide global mobile broadband. Starlink has been instrumental to SpaceX's growth.
A super heavy-lift launch vehicle is a rocket that can lift to low Earth orbit a "super heavy payload", which is defined as more than 50 metric tons (110,000 lb) by the United States and as more than 100 metric tons (220,000 lb) by Russia. It is the most capable launch vehicle classification by mass to orbit, exceeding that of the heavy-lift launch vehicle classification.
This is a corporate history of SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company founded by Elon Musk.
Starship is a two-stage fully reusable super heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by American aerospace company SpaceX. On April 20, 2023, with the first Integrated Flight Test, Starship became the most massive and most powerful vehicle ever to fly. SpaceX has developed Starship with the intention of lowering launch costs using economies of scale, aiming to achieve this by reusing both rocket stages by "catching" them with the launch tower's systems, increasing payload mass to orbit, increasing launch frequency, mass-manufacturing the rockets and adapting it to a wide range of space missions. Starship is the latest project in SpaceX's reusable launch system development program and plan to colonize Mars.
Falcon 9 Block 5 is a partially reusable, human-rated, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. It is the fifth major version of the Falcon 9 family and the third version of the Falcon 9 Full Thrust. It is powered by Merlin 1D engines burning rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX).
↑ "Commercial Market Assessment for Crew and Cargo Systems"(PDF). nasa.gov. NASA. 27 April 2011. p.40. Archived(PDF) from the original on 7 December 2014. Retrieved 10 June 2015. SpaceX has publicly indicated that the development cost for Falcon 9 launch vehicle was approximately $300million. Additionally, approximately $90million was spent developing the Falcon 1 launch vehicle which did contribute to some extent to the Falcon 9, for a total of $390million. NASA has verified these costs.
1 2 Copeland, Rob (17 December 2018). "Elon Musk's New Boring Co. Faced Questions Over SpaceX Financial Ties". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018. When the Boring Co. was earlier this year spun into its own firm, more than 90% of the equity went to Mr. Musk and the rest to early employees... The Boring Co. has since given some equity to SpaceX as compensation for the help... about 6% of Boring stock, "based on the value of land, time and other resources contributed since the creation of the company".
↑ McDowell, Jonathan (19 May 2024). "Starlink Launch Statistics". Jonathan's Space Pages. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
↑ "Falcon 9 & Falcon Heavy". Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2021. The v1.2 design was constantly improved upon over time, leading to different sub-versions or "Blocks". The initial design, flying on the maiden flight was thus referred to as Block 1. The final design which has largely stayed static since 2018 is the Block 5 variant.
1 2 Gwynne Shotwell (17 March 2015). "Statement Of Gwynne Shotwell, President & Chief Operating Officer, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)"(PDF). Congressional testimony. US House of Representatives, Committee On Armed Services Subcommittee On Strategic Forces. Archived(PDF) from the original on 28 January 2016. Retrieved 11 January 2016. SpaceX's 4,000 acre Rocket Development Facility in Central Texas includes 12 test stands that support engine component testing; design, qualification and acceptance testing of Merlin engines; structural testing of the first and second stages; and fully integrated stage testing for full mission durations. The state-of-the-art facility has remote and/or automatic controls and high-speed data acquisition systems, and post test data are available for analysis upon test completion.
↑ "2019 Missile Defense Review"(PDF). Office of the Secretary of Defense. 1 November 2019. Archived(PDF) from the original on 18 January 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2022.
1 2 "Elon Musk". tesla.com. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
↑ This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:"SEC Form D: Notice of sale of securities". United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 19 August 2002. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
↑ "Kimbal Musk". tesla.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
↑ This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain:Tzinis, Irene (12 June 2020). "Ms. Gwynne Shotwell". NASA. Archived from the original on 6 February 2021. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
↑ Garver, Lori B. (2022). Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age. Foreword by Walter Isaacson. New York: Diversion Publishing Corporation. ISBN978-1-63576-770-4. OCLC1328013856. As president and COO of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell is an effective and revered female leader in the space community [...] both companies have reputed "bro" cultures. Numerous charges of sexual harassment and discrimination have recently been made public by employees in both companies. [...] Progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion has been much too slow.
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US$4.6 billion (2022) [4] 
US$−559 million (2022) [4] 
