Space Exploration Technologies Corp., more commonly known as SpaceX, is an American aerospace company founded in 2002 that helped usher in the era of commercial spaceflight. Elon Musk, the CEO of multiple multi-billion-dollar companies, such as Tesla and X (previously Twitter), and the founder of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI, owns this company.

It was the first private company to successfully launch and return a spacecraft from Earth’s orbit and the first to launch a crewed spacecraft and dock it with the International Space Station (ISS). Headquartered in Hawthorne, California, Musk’s primary goal with SpaceX was to revolutionize the aerospace industry and make affordable spaceflight a reality.

Of course, this was always going to be a challenge for Musk, who, at the time, didn’t exactly have a formal background in aerospace. Yet, SpaceX didn’t just survive in the competitive aerospace industry—it thrived, leapfrogging industry giants like Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

SpaceX takes off

In the early 2000s, Musk had already built up a reputation for his success in tech, with companies like Zip2 and PayPal under his belt. However, his biggest ambition was to work in space exploration, a passion since childhood.

At the time, space exploration had been stalled for decades, and Musk wanted to ignite public interest and innovation in the field. He initially tested the waters by planning to send a small greenhouse to Mars to rekindle excitement about space. But he had one problem—he couldn’t find an affordable rocket for his mission. So, he decided to build a rocket himself, which ultimately led to the founding of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX.

SpaceX’s early years were riddled with challenges. Financial constraints and technical difficulties almost crushed the company in its infancy. But Musk took a gamble, pouring nearly all his wealth into SpaceX to keep the dream of reusable rockets alive.

The team started small and developed the Falcon 1 rocket, which launched successfully and reached orbit… only in an alternate universe. In reality, the first three Falcon 1 launches all failed, casting major doubts on the young company’s future. By 2008, SpaceX nearly faced bankruptcy, with one final Falcon 1 test launch scheduled as a last-ditch effort to save the company.

As they say, the third—no, fourth—time’s the charm. Almost as if out of a Hollywood movie, SpaceX’s fourth launch was a turning point as Falcon 1 successfully reached orbit, marking the first time a privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket achieved this.

This milestone changed everything, establishing SpaceX’s credibility and opening doors to new opportunities. Soon after, NASA came knocking and awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to service the ISS, setting SpaceX on a revolutionary path in the aerospace industry.

Going toe-to-toe with the titans

Boeing and Lockheed Martin dominated the U.S. space industry for decades, primarily through their United Launch Alliance (ULA) joint venture. ULA was NASA’s go-to provider for launching payloads into space, but its reliance on costly, non-reusable rockets was a major weakness—one that SpaceX was quick to exploit.

SpaceX revolutionized the industry by pioneering reusable rockets, reducing the cost of access to space. Their breakthrough came with the development of the Falcon 9, designed for reusability.

In 2015, SpaceX successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster, a system that could launch, land, and be reused. This breakthrough allowed SpaceX to offer lower prices than its competitors, making it an attractive option for NASA, commercial satellite companies, and international governments.

One key contract was NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, where SpaceX and Boeing were tasked with developing spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS. While Boeing faced constant delays with its CST-100 Starliner, SpaceX completed its Crew Dragon ahead of schedule. In 2020, Crew Dragon successfully launched astronauts to the ISS, marking a private company’s first crewed mission to space—yet another major achievement for Musk’s SpaceX.

Another crucial factor in SpaceX’s success was its in-house manufacturing approach, which enabled it to work faster than its competitors. By producing most of its components internally, SpaceX could iterate quickly, adapting designs and solving issues faster than Boeing and Lockheed’s more cumbersome production lines.

Musk’s expansion into satellite internet

In addition to casually launching rockets into space, Musk set his sights on creating a global satellite internet network. Known as Starlink, the idea was to bring high-speed Internet to remote areas worldwide using a constellation of thousands of small, low-Earth orbit satellites.
The plan was to make the Internet accessible worldwide and generate revenue that could be used to fund SpaceX’s Mars colonization plans.

As of 2024, SpaceX has launched over 4,000 Starlink satellites and continues adding to this number, creating a vast network for its millions of subscribers that can provide faster, more reliable Internet than traditional satellite services.

However, Starlink has not been without controversy. Some astronomers have raised concerns about space pollution, as the satellite network can interfere with telescopes and disrupt astronomical observations. SpaceX has responded by modifying the satellite designs to be less bright and mitigate the impact of stargazing, though concerns persist.

Latest in SpaceX

SpaceX’s latest innovation, the Starship rocket, represents Musk’s most ambitious project yet. As the largest rocket ever built, Starship aims to carry massive payloads into space, including eventual missions to Mars. The development of Starship aligns closely with Musk’s vision of making humanity a “multi-planetary species,” though the timeline for achieving this dream is still uncertain.

With Starship, SpaceX plans lunar missions as part of NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon by the mid-2020s.

The rocket is reusable like the Falcon series but on an even larger scale, potentially lowering the cost of space travel further and making interplanetary exploration feasible.

On the other hand, SpaceX successfully reused the first-stage booster of its Starship rocket last October, hitting a new milestone. This isn’t just a technical win but a major comeback after years of setbacks. SpaceX executed a flawless maneuver that many once doubted was possible.

The Super Heavy rocket booster, the first stage of the Starship system, blasted off from SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, facility. After reaching the upper atmosphere, the booster detached and descended back to the launch site, where two towering mechanical arms, nicknamed ‘Chopsticks,’ caught the 232-foot-tall stainless steel structure mid-air.

This precise recovery—just seven minutes after lift-off—marks the first time a booster has been successfully caught on land rather than relying on ocean platforms for retrieval.

Looking forward, SpaceX faces increasing competition from other private companies, like Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Rocket Lab, each aiming to carve its place in the expanding space industry.
Of course, Musk knows this and may even plan to outmaneuver competitors. SpaceX’s unique combination of reusability, speed of innovation, and ambition keeps it at the forefront of the industry.

Musk’s vision of a sustainable human colony on Mars may still be far from realization, but SpaceX has undoubtedly moved the world closer to a future in which space travel is accessible and routine. The company has redefined what a private company can accomplish in space, inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs, scientists, and dreamers.

Apon Roy closely follows the video gaming and technology industry and writes about them in newspapers and journals.