SpaceX is an American spacecraft manufacturer and satellite communications corporation founded by Elon Musk in 2002. The major aim of the company is to reduce the cost of satellites for the colonization of Mars. Currently, they are working on building a satellite internet constellation named Starlink to enable commercial internet service.
| Category | Information |
|---|---|
| Company Name | SpaceX |
| CEO | Elon Musk |
| Headquarters | Hawthorne, California, United States |
| Founding Year | 2002 |
| Launch Vehicles | Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship/Super Heavy |
| First Successful Orbit | Falcon 1, September 28, 2008 |
| First Successful Commercial Launch | Falcon 1, July 13, 2009 |
| First Successful Landing of Orbital-Class Rocket | Falcon 9, December 22, 2015 |
| Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Starship/Super-Heavy | Falcon 9, April 8, 2016 |
| First Reuse of a Rocket for a Space Mission | Falcon 9, March 30, 2017 |
| First Launch of Falcon Heavy | February 6, 2018 |
| First Commercial Crew Launch to the ISS | Falcon 9, Demo-2, May 30, 2020 |
| First Commercial Launch of Starship Prototype | Starship SN15, May 5, 2021 |
| Planned Mars Missions | Red Dragon (unmanned), Mars Colonial Transporter, Mars Sample Return Mission |
| Other notable missions | Falcon Heavy launch of Tesla Roadster, Inspiration4 civilian mission (2021) |
SpaceX is owned by Elon Musk, who has 47.4% equity and 78.3% voting control. Elon Musk is a successful entrepreneur and investor, known for founding SpaceX, Tesla, and the Boring Company, among other ventures. As of March 27, 2023, he is the second-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of around $192 billion.
Musk was born in South Africa and later moved to Canada, where he acquired citizenship. After studying at several universities, he dropped out and co-founded Zip2, which was later acquired by Compaq. He also co-founded X.com, which merged with Confinity to become PayPal. In 2002, he founded SpaceX and later became the CEO of Tesla.
Musk has made controversial statements on politics and technology and has been criticized for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. In 2018, he was sued by the SEC for falsely tweeting about funding for a private takeover of Tesla. Elon Musk, who was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa, is of British and Pennsylvania Dutch descent. His father was a South African engineer, pilot, sailor, and real estate entrepreneur, while his mother was a Canadian model and dietician. He was raised in a rich household. Early on, Musk had a passion for computers and video games. He taught himself to programme and even made money from a game he sold when he was just twelve years old. Musk has spoken out against apartheid despite growing up in a wealthy family and drifting away from his father.
In 2001, Elon Musk joined the Mars Society and discussed placing a growth chamber on Mars. He travelled to Moscow to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to send the greenhouse payloads into space but was unsuccessful. Instead, he founded SpaceX in 2002 with $100 million of his own money. After several failed attempts, SpaceX successfully launched Falcon 1 into orbit in 2008. The company was later awarded a $1.6 billion contract from NASA for 12 flights of its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Zip2 was founded by Musk, his brother Kimbal, and Greg Kouri in 1995 with $28,000 in funding from Errol Musk. They developed an Internet city guide and obtained contracts with The New York Times and Chicago Tribune. Zip2 was acquired by Compaq for $307 million in cash in 1999, and Musk received $22 million for his 7% share.
In 1999, Elon Musk co-founded X.com, which offered online financial services and e-mail payments. X.com was among the first online banks that were federally insured, and it garnered over 200,000 customers in its initial months. However, investors did not consider Musk experienced enough and replaced him with Bill Harris, the CEO of Intuit, by year-end. In 2000, X.com merged with Confinity, whose PayPal money-transfer service was more popular than X.com’s. Musk eventually returned as CEO but was ousted again in September 2000. Under Peter Thiel, PayPal became a focused money-transfer service that eBay acquired for $1.5 billion in stock in 2002. In 2017, Musk bought the X.com domain for sentimental reasons, and he revealed his plan to create “X, the everything app” in 2022.
SpaceX initiated the Starlink satellite constellation in 2015 to provide internet access. The first two prototypes were launched in 2018, followed by the first large deployment of 60 operational satellites in 2019, costing an estimated $10 billion. The project has faced criticism for blocking the sky’s view and posing a threat to spacecraft. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals to provide internet access, refusing to block Russian state media due to his support for free speech. SpaceX donated 20,000 satellite terminals and will continue to provide Starlink to Ukraine for free, costing the company $400 million annually.
Tesla, previously known as Tesla Motors, was established in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. The company received funding from Musk in 2004, and he became the majority shareholder and chairman of the board of directors. In 2008, Musk took over as CEO and product architect, following conflicts and Eberhard’s ousting. Tesla’s first vehicle was the Roadster, launched in 2008, followed by the Model S sedan, the Model X crossover, and the Model 3 mass-market sedan. Tesla’s Model 3 became the all-time bestselling plug-in electric car in 2021. Tesla has also built multiple lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle factories, named Gigafactories. Under Musk’s leadership, Tesla’s stock has risen significantly, and in October 2021, it reached a market capitalization of $1 trillion.
In 2017, Musk expressed interest in buying Twitter and criticized the platform’s commitment to free speech. He started purchasing Twitter shares in January 2022, eventually becoming the largest shareholder. On April 13, he launched a takeover bid to buy 100% of Twitter’s stock for $54.20 per share. Despite Twitter’s adoption of a “poison pill” shareholder rights plan, Musk successfully concluded his bid for approximately $44 billion by the end of the month. However, his ownership was short-lived, as he made a series of controversial decisions, faced lawsuits, and ultimately resigned as CEO in December.
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