In 2002, Elon Musk had millions of dollars from eBay's purchase of PayPal, so he wanted to send a small payload to Mars on a Russian rocket. Elon found that the rocket was too expensive, so he decided to build his own rocket. This is how Space Exploration Technologies, or simply SpaceX, was founded. Since then, they've changed everything about the Space Industry

     SpaceX began by building a small rocket, the Falcon 1. The Falcon 1 had a single Merlin engine on it's first stage, and a single Kestrel engine on it's second stage. In 2008, after three failed test flights, SpaceX was down to their last dollars when they attempted their 4th Falcon 1 flight. The flight succeeded! After that, SpaceX successfully launched a payload from Malaysia before retiring the Falcon 1.

    In 2008, SpaceX won a NASA contract to develop their Dragon spacecraft, which would deliver fresh supplies and science experiments to the ISS.

liver fresh supplies to the International Space Station using their Dragon spacecraft. The Dragon spacecraft would be launched on the Falcon 9 rocket, which SpaceX was developing. The Falcon 9 has 9 Merlin engines, and has 2 stages like the Falcon 1. In 2012, after multiple flight tests, the Dragon became the first private spacecraft to visit the ISS. The Dragon 1 spacecraft has two main parts, a pressurized capsule that astronauts can go in, and returns to Earth. The second part is the unpressurized trunk which can be filled with components that will be added to the outside of the ISS. 

     Since the beginning, SpaceX has been interested in reusing their rockets. No other company had ever reused rockets, the only thing that ever came close was NASA's Space Shuttle. After numerous failures, SpaceX learned to propulsively land rockets on landing pads, and on offshore autonomous barges. Since then, SpaceX has pioneered rocket reusability, which has allowed them to fly a single rocket over 10 times! This reusability has allowed SpaceX to lower their launch costs, allowing them to open access to space for more companies. 

     Since 2010, SpaceX has launched over 100 Falcon 9 rockets for a variety of customers including: NASA, the US government, Iridium, and international space agencies. In 2018, SpaceX launched a test flight of their newest rocket, the Falcon Heavy. During the test flight, a Tesla Roadster with a mannequin inside was launched into a heliocentric orbit  The Falcon Heavy is a very powerful rocket. It is made from 3 interconnected Falcon 9 cores, and a Falcon 9 upper stage.

     In 2014, NASA selected SpaceX, alongside Boeing, to launch astronauts to the ISS using their upgraded Dragon capsule, and Falcon 9. SpaceX then began developing Dragon 2, which would be capable of both crewed and uncrewed missions to the ISS. The Dragon 2 first flew astronauts on May 30th, 2020 during the Demo-2 mission. It was the first orbital astronaut launch on US soil since 2011. Since then, they have launched multiple crewed missions, and they are significantly ahead of Boeing. SpaceX has also agreed to launch space tourists using their Dragon 2 spacecraft. 

     Elon Musk has always been interested in sending people to Mars. He has worked on many concepts for Mars colonization, but the only concept to get past the design stage was Starship. Starship is a fully-reusable rocket currently under development in Boca Chica, Texas.

     Starship is unlike anything that has ever been built. It will be 100% reusable, and be able to lift over 100 metric tons to LEO. If all goes according to plan, then Starship will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Starship will be a two-stage rocket. The bottom stage is called Super Heavy, it will have the capability to lift the upper stage through most of the atmosphere before returning to the launch site for a soft landing. The upper stage is confusingly, also called Starship. During a launch, the Super Heavy stage will boost Starship most of the way to space. Starship will then detach and fire it's engines, propelling itself into orbit. Once in orbit, Starship can deploy satellites, dock with space stations, or use in-orbit refueling to head off on journeys to the Moon, Mars, or beyond. Starship be able to carry about 100 astronauts. Does Starship sound amazing! That's because it is, it is truly revolutionary. If you want to learn more about Starship, then I highly recommend this 1-hour long YouTube video by Everyday Astronaut.

     SpaceX has already began work building Starship prototypes in Boca Chica Texas. They are taking a different approach to how rockets are normally developed. Normally, companies or space agencies plan out all of the details of a rocket before building it, but this is very different from SpaceX's approach. They are rapidly building prototypes, and modifying them as they test them. This has resulted in numerous prototypes being built, and a lot of explosive tests. In 2021, SpaceX was awarded a NASA contract to land humans on the moon as part of NASA's Artemis Program. SpaceX hopes to launch a manned tourist mission around the moon called dearMoon by 2023.

     SpaceX has kicked off a second space race, but this space race is not between countries, but between companies. Elon Musk has inspired countless people to start their own companies. In addition, SpaceX has lowered the cost to launch payloads to space, which has resulted in more satellites being launched. And SpaceX, is just getting started. 

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Photos and Videos courtesy of SpaceX