SpaceX

Net Worth

$74,000,000,000

Started in (City)

California

Started in (Country)

Incorporation Date

06th December, 2002

Bankruptcy Date

Founders

Elon Musk

About

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX manufactures the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Dragon cargo and crew spacecraft and Starlink satellites. SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 in 2008), the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012), the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2015), the first reuse of an orbital rocket (Falcon 9 in 2017), and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station (SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 and SpaceX Crew-1 missions in 2020). SpaceX has flown and reflown the Falcon 9 series of rockets over one hundred times.

Beginning

In 2001, Elon Musk conceptualized Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. This was his attempt at regaining public interest in space exploration and to increase the budget of NASA. He tried to buy second hand cheap rockets from Russia, but came back empty handed after failing to find affordable rockets. The prices per launch vehicle ranged from $15 million and up. This outraged him, the root problem he saw in the bureaucratization of the space industry, the competitiveness of the large corporations prevented the entry of newer ones. On his flight back home, he decided that he could start a company that would make affordable rockets. According to his calculations, the raw materials that were required to build a rocket were about 3% of its sales price. Musk believed that he could reduce the price tenfold, by applying vertical integration, in house production of hardware and building reusable parts. Musk approached rocket engineer Tom Mueller, who agreed to work with him and hence SpaceX was born.

Road to Success

The first few years were marked by funding, securing contracts and contacts. In March 2006, SpaceX made its first Falcon 1 launch, which started off well but ended soon, just 33 seconds after launch, because of a fuel leak and fire. August of the same year SpaceX was a winner of its first NASA award of $278 million to help develop Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon space capsule. The next year, the next chance to establish credibility also ended in failure. The engines shut down and the rocket failed to reach the orbit. 2008, was a recurrence of the same. The rocket was carrying NASA\’s payload and it all ended up in the sea. The third failure pushed the company to the brink of bankruptcy. It was saved by billionaire Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal. He was the first outside investor. The fourth launch in September was a huge success. SpaceX became the first privately owned company to send a liquid fueled rocket into orbit. Three months later NASA awarded the company a contract to handle cargo transport for the International Space Station, with a $1.6 billion investment. Since its first launch, SpaceX has not looked back. In 2010 SpaceX first launched its Falcon 9, a bigger craft, named for its use of nine engines. In December of that year, the company reached another milestone, becoming the first commercial company to release a spacecraft, Dragon, into orbit and successfully return it to Earth. Each two-stage Falcon 9 rocket is powered by a first stage with nine Merlin engines, which use kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants, and a second stage powered by a single Merlin vacuum engine. The 230 ft tall rocket can shuttle a payload weighing 50,265 pounds to low-Earth orbit and 8,860 pounds to Mars. Since 2010, Falcon 9 has launched 84 times and has safely returned to Earth 45 times. 31 of those rockets have been recycled and flown again. Falcon 9\’s reusability has revolutionized spaceflight, making it cheaper and more efficient. On May 22, 2012, SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station (ISS) with 1,000 pounds of supplies.

Challenges

In the 16 years since Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation – SpaceX – was founded, the company has transformed the commercial space market. It has proven that launch services can be provided at far less cost than previously thought. It has demonstrated that rocket stages can be successfully reused. And it has repeatedly accomplished feats no commercial company would have contemplated in the past. No doubt about it, SpaceX is a pioneer. But pioneers do not always come to a good end. The life of Nikola Tesla, the inventor and futurist for whom Musk’s other great enterprise is named, offers an example of how even geniuses can lose their way in the jungle-like landscape of infant industries. SpaceX has changed the world, but the jury is still out on whether it has a sustainable business model. That may be one of the reasons why Musk has not taken SpaceX public – even though analysts estimate its value as high as $28 billion. The publicly stated reason is that Musk doesn’t want outsiders mucking around in his plans to send astronauts to Mars, as a prelude to establishing a permanent colony there. It’s an inspiring vision, but public or private, there are some serious challenges that the company will need to overcome first. What follows, in descending order of severity, is my list of the five most important challenges SpaceX will need to address in the near term – long before humans ever walk on the Red Planet. I should mention up front that I have business ties of one sort or another to several of Musk’s competitors, most notably Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But this story isn’t about them, it’s about the structural challenges SpaceX faces as an enterprise. A Dragon spacecraft built by SpaceX approaches the International Space Station with cargo. The global market for commercial space launches is not big. Bryce Space & Technology, an analytic outfit, figures it is around $6 billion annually. SpaceX has come to dominate that market by offering cut-rate prices for placing communications satellites in geosynchronous orbit – the orbit that enables them to remain above a specific point on the Earth’s surface even though they are traveling at thousands of miles per hour, because they match the rotation of the planet.

Failures

SpaceX is inspiring because of its failures as much as its successes. The private space company has endured multiple fiery setbacks — including Thursday’s launchpad explosion in Florida—yet remains en route to achieving its ambitious aims. 2006The first SpaceX launch fails just 33 seconds after lift-off. Cause: a rusty nut. This video provides a blurry view looking down from the rocket…until it explodes. 2007The company’s next chance to establish credibility also ends in failure. The engines shut down prematurely and the rocket fails to reach orbit. SpaceX is 0 for 2. 2008Ferrying the ashes of Star Trek star James “Scotty” Doohan into space should have made great publicity for SpaceX—if the payload hadn’t ended up in the sea instead. This video captures the moment when two of the rocket stages separate and collide, sending the craft into an uncontrollable spin. Also onboard was SpaceX’s first payload for NASA.

Achievements

Best CEO 2018
Best Company Los Angeles

Subsidies

Zip2
X.com
Tesla, Inc

CEOs

Elon Musk