SpaceX

Main article: History of SpaceX See also: List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches 2001–2004: Founding In 2001, Elon Musk conceptualized Mars Oasis, a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. In an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration and increase NASA's budget, Musk announced that the project would be "the farthest that life's ever traveled".[7][8][9] Musk tried to purchase cheap and refurbished Dnepr rockets from Russia but returned empty-handed after failing to find rockets for an affordable price.[10][11] On the flight home Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed.[11] By applying vertical integration,[10] using cheap commercial off-the-shelf components when possible,[11] and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch price.[11] In early 2002, Musk started to look for staff for his new space company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached rocket engineer Tom Mueller (later SpaceX's CTO of propulsion), and invited him to become his business partner. Mueller agreed to work for Musk, and thus SpaceX was born.[12] SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees.[13] Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees, even going so far as convincing Larry Page to transfer a Google employee from San Francisco to Los Angeles so that the employee's spouse, a potential SpaceX hire, would take the job.[14] Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.[15] 2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches. Main article: Falcon 1 The first successful Falcon 1 launch in September 2008 SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with private funding.[16][17] The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle. The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately US$90 million[18] to US$100 million.[19] In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade, a program which would later become the Dragon spacecraft.[20] In 2006, NASA announced that the company was one of two selected to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the COTS program.[21] The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use by DARPA.[17][22][23] The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures. These failures almost ended the company as Musk had planned and financing to cover the costs of three launches; Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time as well;[24] Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress.[25] However, things started to turn around when the first successful launch was achieved shortly after with the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company.[26] Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1 was soon after 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.[27] Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at this time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with NASA.[28] 2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts. File:SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 launch.ogvVideo of the first launch of Falcon 9Dragon capsule after recovery from ocean landing in December 2010, following the first operational Dragon mission COTS-1 SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5.[29] SpaceX instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9, a reusable heavier lift vehicle. Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchase several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006.[30] The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon.[30] As part of this 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.[31] By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.[32] In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a US$75 million 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.[33] In August 2012, NASA awarded SpaceX a firm, fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) with the objective of producing a detailed design of the entire crew transportation system. This contract includes numerous key technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions following system certification.[34] In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk[35] and his 70 million shares were then estimated to be worth US$875 million on private markets,[36] valuing SpaceX at US$1.3 billion.[37] In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.[38] After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to US$2.4 billion or US$20/share.[39][40] By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $200 million, with Musk investing approximately $100 million and other investors having put in about $100 million.[41]