Space Exploration Technologies Corp., doing business as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and provider of space transportation, telecommunications, and artificial intelligence services, headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. The company operates three primary segments: Space, which develops and flies the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, as well as the Dragon spacecraft, and conducts more orbital launches annually than any other launch provider (including national programs); Connectivity, which operates the Starlink satellite constellation and satellite-based high-speed broadband internet service; and AI, conducted through its wholly owned subsidiary SpaceXAI, which develops the Grok family of large language models (LLMs) and related products, operates the social network X (formerly Twitter), and builds and runs large-scale data centers.
The company is credited with advances in rocket propulsion, reusable launch vehicles, human spaceflight, and satellite constellation technology. The company's largest customers include NASA, the United States Space Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office. Elon Musk owns 39% of the outstanding shares of SpaceX (plus a number of vested options and unvested restricted shares) and controls 84% of the voting power via his super-voting stock. SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing spaceflight costs, improving the reliability of access to outer space for ordinary humans, and colonizing Mars. In 2008, after three failed attempts between 2006 and 2008 that almost pushed the company to bankruptcy, SpaceX successfully launched the Falcon 1 into orbit, becoming the first private company to develop and launch a liquid-fueled rocket to orbit. In 2010, the company launched the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and the Dragon 1 spacecraft to fulfill NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contracts for cargo deliveries to the International Space Station (ISS). In 2012, SpaceX began flying Commercial Resupply Services missions to the ISS, becoming the first private company to successfully dock with the station, and started developing technologies to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable. In 2015, Falcon 9 flight 20 was the first successful landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage and the company's SES-10 completed the first reflight of an orbital-class booster in 2017. After a decade of development, the Falcon Heavy, which consists of three Falcon 9-derived boosters, made its maiden flight in 2018. , Falcon 9 launches averaged approximately three missions per week, and Falcon boosters had completed nearly 650 landings and reflights.
In 2019, the first operational satellite of the Starlink internet satellite constellation came online, diversifying the revenue of the company. Starlink has generated the bulk of SpaceX's income and led to its Starshield military counterpart. In 2020, SpaceX began to operate its Dragon 2 capsules for NASA and private entity crewed missions. Around this time, SpaceX began building test prototypes for SpaceX Starship, the largest launch vehicle in history. SpaceX plans to adapt it as a human lander for lunar missions under NASA's Artemis program. In 2026, SpaceX acquired Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI (subsequently operated as the wholly owned subsidiary SpaceXAI), and announced a joint venture with Tesla, Inc. to build Terafab, a large plant for semiconductor device fabrication. The initial public offering of SpaceX on June 12, 2026, which raised $86 billion, was the largest IPO in history and briefly made Musk the first US-dollar trillionaire.
History
2001–2002: Founding In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated to his Mars Society and briefly joined its board of directors. In August 2001, 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.
Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr launch vehicle for the project through Russian contacts provided by Jim Cantrell; however, he was unsuccessful.
Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael D. Griffin, who later became the 11th Administrator of NASA, but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home, Musk stated that he could start a company to build the affordable rockets the project required. By applying vertical integration, using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch costs.
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, including Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer, Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey later founded the company Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson. 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), were previously employed at TRW and Boeing. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees.
2003–2010: Falcon 1, COTS, and Falcon 9
SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle. The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately to . The Falcon rocket series was named after Star Warss Millennium Falcon fictional spacecraft.
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 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. 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.
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 medium-lift launch vehicle intended to be reusable. Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program. The contract provided development funding for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon.
The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new U.S. launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike.Graham Warwick and Guy Norris, "Blue Sky Thinking: DARPA at 50," Aviation Week & Space Technology, August 18–25, 2008, p. 18. 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 September 28, 2008. Musk split his remaining between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded SpaceX a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract in December, thus financially saving the company. 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 the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier.
As part of the COTS 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. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.
2011–2018: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts
In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a 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. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (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 seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth on private markets, valuing SpaceX at . In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to or /share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately , with Musk investing approximately and other investors having put in about .
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 performed vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.
Commercial launches and rapid growth
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 (ULA). The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over over the years. 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.
In January 2015, SpaceX raised in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments, in exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at approximately . The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.