Top Space Companies in the World

 

 

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)

SpaceX is one of the top American space companies in the world that is engaged in aerospace manufacturing, space transportation services, and communications. It is headquartered in Hawthorne, California. Elon Musk created SpaceX in 2002 intending to lower the cost of space travel so that Mars may be colonized. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, as well as multiple rocket engines, the Dragon cargo, and crew spacecraft, and the Starlink communications satellites, are all manufactured by SpaceX.

Profile

Market Cap: 100B​Founder, CEO: ElonMusk  ​

Sector(s): Construction/Manufacturing​​Industry: Aerospace and Defense

Founded: 2002​​Headquarters: Hawthorne, California, USA​

Employees: 8,000

As of October 19, 2021

Achievements of SpaceX

The first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 in 2008), the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (Dragon in 2010), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2012), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2015), the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon in 2017), the first private (SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo-2 in 2020). The Falcon 9 series of rockets has been flown and built and tested over a hundred times by SpaceX.

To provide commercial internet access, SpaceX is creating the Starlink satellite mega constellation. The Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation ever launched in January 2020. Starship, a privately funded, totally reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary spaceflight, is also being developed by SpaceX. Once operational, Starship will take over as SpaceX's primary orbital vehicle, replacing the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleets.

Historical Insight (2001-2004)

Elon Musk proposed Mars Oasis in 2001, a plan to launch a modest experimental greenhouse on Mars and grow plants there. In an attempt to rekindle public enthusiasm in space exploration and boost NASA's funding, Obama claimed that the mission will be "the farthest that life has ever traveled." Musk attempted to buy cheap rockets from Russia but came up short after trying to obtain rockets at a reasonable price.

Musk concluded on the way home that he could create a company to produce the low-cost rockets he need. Musk felt SpaceX could drastically reduce launch costs by leveraging vertical integration, using low-cost commercial off-the-shelf components whenever possible, and embracing the modular style of modern software engineering.

Musk started looking for employees for his new space company, SpaceX, in early 2002. Musk approached Tom Mueller, a rocket engineer who subsequently became SpaceX's CTO of propulsion, and invited him to join his company. As a result of Mueller's agreement to work with Musk, SpaceX was born. In the beginning, SpaceX was based out of a warehouse in El Segundo, California. The company has 160 employees by November 2005. Musk personally vetted and approved all of SpaceX's early workers, including persuading Larry Page to shift a Google employee from San Francisco to Los Angeles forthe employee's spouse, a possible SpaceX hire, to take the position.

Musk has indicated that one of SpaceX's aims is to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of the access to space by a factor of 10.

Launch of Falcon 1: 2005-2009

The Falcon 1, SpaceX's first orbital launch vehicle, was created with private funds. The Falcon 1 was a two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle that could be used multiple times. Falcon 1's entire development cost was in the range of US$90 million to US$100 million.

SpaceX declared in 2005 that it would pursue a human-rated commercial space program until the end of the decade, a mission that would subsequently become the Dragon spacecraft. NASA stated in 2006 that the company was one of two chosen to offer personnel and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station as part of the COTS program.

The US Department of Defense acquired the first two Falcon 1 launches as part of a program to examine new US launch vehicles suitable for use by DARPA. The rocket's first three launches, which took place between 2006 and 2008, all failed. Due to the stress, Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming, and in physical pain" as a result of the failures. Musk had planned and funded to cover the expenses of three launches; Tesla, Solar City, and Musk personally were all practically bankrupt at the same time.

However, things began to turn around when the first successful launch occurred on the fourth attempt on September 28, 2008. Musk split his remaining $30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and in December, NASA awarded SpaceX the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, saving the firm financially. Following its second successful, and fifth overall, launch in July 2009, the Falcon 1 was quickly retired, allowing SpaceX to focus its resources on the building of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9, as a result of these reasons and the additional business operations they enabled. In recognition of her involvement in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with NASA, Gwynne Shotwell was appointed to company president at this time.

 

Falcon 9 and NASA Contract 2010-2012

The total contract value was $278 million, which included development funds for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and Falcon 9 with Dragon demonstration launches. The Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 carrying the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft, as part of this contract.

The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 on Falcon 9's second flight, COTS Demo Flight 1, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, achieving all of its mission goals. By December 2010, SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Dragon production lines were producing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.

NASA awarded SpaceX a US$75 million contract in April 2011 as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development program to build an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the International Space Station. NASA awarded SpaceX a firm, fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) in August 2012 to develop a thorough design of the full crew transportation system.

 

 

 

 

 

Launches and Rapid Growth

In 2013, SpaceX successfully launched its first commercial mission for a private customer. In 2014, SpaceX was awarded nine contracts out of a total of twenty that were freely bid on around the world. Arianespace requested increased funding from European governments that year to compete with SpaceX. Beginning in 2014, SpaceX's capabilities and pricing began to have an impact on the market for the launch of US military payloads, which had been dominated by the United Launch Alliance for nearly a decade. The monopoly has caused the US provider's launch expenses to increase to over $400 million over time.

SpaceX raised $1 billion in capital from Google and Fidelity in January 2015 in return for 8.33 percent of the company, valuing it at over $12 billion. In the same month, SpaceX announced the launch of Starlink, a new satellite constellation that will deliver global broadband internet access. In June of the following year, the business requested approval from the federal government to begin testing for the project, which aims to establish a constellation of 4,425 satellites.

SpaceX had a 45 percent global market share for commercial launch contracts awarded in 2017. SpaceX has more than 100 launches on its manifest by March 2018, generating over $12 billion in contract money.

The era of 2019 to Present 

On January 11, 2019, SpaceX stated that 10% of its workers would be laid off to help fund the Starship and Starlinkprograms. In early 2019, the prototypes and tests for Starship began in Florida and Texas. Later that year, all Starship building and testing were shifted to the new SpaceX South Texas launch site. SpaceX also launched the first significant batch of 60 Starlink satellites in May 2019, kicking off the deployment of the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year.

During Crew Dragon Demo-2 on May 30, 2020, SpaceXsuccessfully launched two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and the first crewed launch from American soil in nine years. The flight took off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida.

By 2021, SpaceX had signed deals with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to offer Starlink with on-ground computation and networking capabilities.

List of Accomplishments by SpaceX

Date	Accomplishments	Flights
September 2008	First privately funded fully liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.	Falcon 1 flight 4
July 2009	First, privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to put a commercial satellite in orbit.	RazakSAT on Falcon 1 flight 5
December 2010	First private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft.	SpaceXDragon on SpaceXCOTS Demo Flight 1
May 2012	First private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).	Dragon C2+
December 2015	First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on land.	Falcon 9 B1019 on OrbcommOG2 M2
April 2016	First landing of an orbital-class rocket's first stage on an ocean platform.	Falcon 9 B1021 on SpaceXCRS-8
March 2017	1. First reuse, flight, and (second) landing of an orbital first stage. 2. First controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing.	Falcon 9 B1021 on SES-10 SES-10
June 2017	First re-flight of a commercial cargo spacecraft.	Dragon C106 on SpaceXCRS-11
February 2018	The first private spacecraft launched into a heliocentric orbit.	Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster on Falcon Heavy test flight
March 2019	1. First private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to orbit. 2. First private company to autonomously dock a crew-capable spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).	Crew Dragon Demo-1
July 2019	First flight of a full-flow staged combustion cycle engine.	Starhopper
November 2019	First reuse and flight of the payload fairing. The fairing was from the Arabsat-6A mission in April 2019.	Starlink 2 v1.0
January 2020	Largest commercial satellite constellation operator in the world.	Starlink 3 v1.0
May 2020	1. First private company to send humans into orbit. 2. First private company to send humans to the International Space Station (ISS).	Crew Dragon Demo-2
January 2021	Most spacecraft launched into space on a single mission, with 143 satellites.	Ttransporter-1 on Falcon 9
June 2021	First reused booster launch for a 'national security mission. (National security missions had previously only used new boosters.)	GPS III-05 on Falcon 9, the second flight of booster B1062
September 2021	First orbital launch of an all-private crew.	Inspiration4