SpaceX

Overview

Founded by Elon Musk in 2002, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is a Texas-based company that pioneered the development of reusable rockets. He initially attempted to purchase ballistic missiles in Europe and Russia, hoping to launch a rocket carrying a plant or animal to Mars to spark global interest in colonizing the planet, but found them too expensive.

By implementing a vertically integrated supply chain—where materials are manufactured in-house—and by urging his team to test and simplify every manufacturing rule and process, SpaceX's orbital rocket is today 97% cheaper than those used by Russia in the 1960s. The reusability of the company's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket has revolutionized spaceflight economics, and its Starship—a spacecraft designed for travel to Mars—will be launched atop its partially reusable Falcon Heavy, which is engineered for super-heavy payloads.

Using its low-cost launch system, SpaceX has deployed over 5,000 communications satellites into low-Earth orbit to form Starlink, the world's first global broadband internet service.

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