SpaceX (Space Technologies Corporation) has been making history over the past two decades as a privately owned company that is making immense progress into the development of space travel. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX as well as CEO of Tesla became the world’s richest man as of last month. So what exactly has the company gone through over the past two decades, and what else do they have in store for the future?
The early years…
SpaceX was founded in early 2002 by Elon Musk, after PayPal was sold off to eBay and as Musk was the largest shareholder, he managed to receive close to $200 million. Musk established SpaceX aspiring to make space travel affordable and accessible in the future. One of his main ambitions, however, is to ultimately colonise space making humans multi-planetary. SpaceX started small, with just three employees, but after gaining attention and funding from the U.S. government and NASA, they grew.
The company struggled to launch crafts successfully over the first few years and even came close to having to shut down entirely. It was not until 2008 that Falcon 1, their first craft, was launched successfully into orbit, making SpaceX the first private company to launch a spacecraft into Earth orbit. After this success, SpaceX won a contract with NASA to service the International Space Station (ISS) worth over $1 billion.
What has SpaceX developed over the years…?
After the successful launch into orbit of Falcon 1 in 2008 and beginning to focus on servicing the ISS, SpaceX began the production of launch vehicle Falcon 9. Named Falcon 9 after its 9 engines, the purpose of the craft is to launch astronauts into space as well as satellites. The Dragon Capsule was launched in 2010, with that making SpaceX the first commercial company to launch from and return to Earth. The Dragon capsule was then used in 2012 to deliver supplies/cargo to the ISS, also a first for a private company at the time.
SpaceX continued to develop these crafts as well as others, but a major achievement was made last year when SpaceX used the Dragon Capsule to transport two astronauts to the ISS. This again was a first for a privately owned company, and the capsule successfully returned to Earth to be reused. In 2020, the development of Super Heavy, a new Starship system designed to eventually replace the craft Falcon 9 family, which is currently the main launch vehicle.
What lies ahead…?
After the successful Crew-1 mission in 2020, SpaceX and NASA are aiming to launch the Crew-2 mission to the ISS before April 20 this year. The crew onboard will consist of two U.S astronauts from NASA as well as one from Japan and one from the EU. The Dragon capsule used will be the one that returned from the Crew-1 mission last year. The reusable feature of the Dragon capsule is what makes it truly revolutionary as it reduces costs astronomically, as well as reducing waste.
Late last year, Starship prototype SN8 was launched successfully, but unfortunately crashed upon landing. Earlier this month they launched SN9, which had the same outcome, but despite these setbacks, Elon Musk does not seem to be fretting, as, despite the complications with the launch, they managed to gather enough information for the next prototype launch.
Over the next decade, SpaceX is set to achieve some astonishing things if they are to be successful. Musk plans to launch a flight in 2023 around the moon which will carry Japanese billionaire businessman Maezawa Yusaku, as well as some artists. There are also plans to launch settlers to Mars in 2025, with supplies are preparations to be launched to Mars and assembled before humans arrive on the planet.
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