SpaceX

In 2001, Elon Musk flew to Moscow to buy refurbished ICBMs to send a greenhouse to Mars — a publicity stunt to reignite public interest in space exploration. The Russians refused to sell, and reportedly laughed at him. On the flight home, Musk opened a spreadsheet and began calculating the cost of building rockets from scratch. He concluded it was cheaper than buying them. SpaceX was incorporated on May 6, 2002 with $100 million of Musk's own money from the PayPal acquisition.

SpaceX's first three Falcon 1 rockets all exploded. By September 2008, Musk had spent nearly his entire fortune. Tesla was also on the verge of bankruptcy. The fourth Falcon 1 launch on September 28, 2008 was successful — the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit in history. Musk broke down in tears at the launch site. Six weeks later, SpaceX won a $1.6 billion NASA contract to resupply the International Space Station.

On December 21, 2015, SpaceX landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket vertically back at the launch site — something no company had ever done. Reusable rockets cut launch costs by an order of magnitude. SpaceX went from a curiosity to the dominant force in commercial launch services. NASA, the Pentagon, and dozens of commercial satellite operators became customers.

SpaceX launched Starship — the largest and most powerful rocket ever built — on its first orbital test flight in 2023. The first two attempts ended in spectacular explosions. By the fourth test in 2024, Starship had successfully returned its Super Heavy booster to the launch pad, caught by mechanical arms called "chopsticks." The feat was considered impossible by most aerospace engineers. Starlink, the satellite internet division, had grown to over 4 million subscribers across 100 countries.

SpaceX went public in June 2026 at a valuation exceeding $1.75 trillion — making it one of the most valuable companies ever to list on a public exchange and the largest IPO in U.S. history. The IPO was the most anticipated market event since Facebook's listing in 2012. On its first day of trading, the stock rose over 19%. The company founded on a spreadsheet calculation on a flight home from Moscow had become worth more than every aerospace company in history combined.