(SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. The company manufactures the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Starlink communications satellites.
SpaceX is developing a satellite internet constellation named Starlink to provide commercial internet service. In January 2020, the Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation ever launched, and as of December 2022 comprises over 3,300 small satellites in orbit.[10] The company also developed Starship, a privately funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight. It is intended to become SpaceX's primary orbital vehicle, supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleet. It has the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever built. In April 2023, Starship's first launch ended in an explosion, four minutes into flight.[11][12]
SpaceX has made several achievements in space exploration. These include making the first privately developed liquid-propellant rocket that reached orbit, the first private company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, the first to achieve vertical propulsive landing of an orbital rocket booster, the first to reuse such a booster, and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. In addition, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets have been flown and landed over one hundred times.
