SpaceX

Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. in March 2002, investing roughly $100M of his PayPal proceeds, with the long-term goal of making humanity multiplanetary. After three Falcon 1 failures that nearly bankrupted the company, the fourth flight reached orbit in September 2008 — the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so — and a NASA cargo contract followed that saved the company.

SpaceX then did what every expert said was impossible: it landed and reused orbital rockets. Falcon 9 first landed a booster in December 2015 and reflew one in 2017; today individual boosters fly 30+ times and SpaceX recovers fairings too. It flew the first private crewed mission (2020), the first all-civilian orbital flight (2021), and the first commercial spacewalk (2024).

In 2025 SpaceX launched 165 times and lifted more than 80% of all mass humanity put into orbit. Its next-generation Starship — the largest, most powerful rocket ever built — caught its returning booster with the launch tower in 2024 and is NASA's chosen lunar lander for Artemis. As of 2026 SpaceX is reportedly preparing one of the largest IPOs in history.