Space Exploration Technologies Corp., trading as SpaceX, is a private American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles and the Dragon spacecraft. more at Wikipedia.
History of SpaceX: Road to Demo-2.... view.
Major achievements of SpaceX are in the reuse of orbital-class launch vehicles and cost reduction in the space launch industry. Most notable of these being the continued landings and relaunches of the first stage of Falcon 9. As of March 2020, SpaceX has used a single first-stage booster, B1048, at most five times. SpaceX is defined as a private space company and thus its achievements can also be counted as firsts by a private company.
Landmark achievements of SpaceX in chronological order include:
• The first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 flight 4 on 28 September 2008)
• The first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to put a commercial satellite in orbit (RazakSAT on Falcon 1 flight 5 on 14 July 2009)
• The first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (SpaceX Dragon on COTS Demo Flight 1 on 9 December 2010)
• The first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon C2+ on 25 May 2012)
• The first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (SES-8 on Falcon 9 flight 7 on 3 December 2013)
• The first landing of an orbital rocket's first stage on land (Falcon 9 flight 20 on 22 December 2015)
• The first landing of an orbital rocket's first stage on an ocean platform (Falcon 9 flight 23 on 8 April 2016)
• The first relaunch and landing of a used orbital rocket stage (B1021 on Falcon 9 flight 32 on 30 March 2017)
• The first controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing (Falcon 9 flight 32 on 30 March 2017)
• The first reflight of a commercial cargo spacecraft. (Dragon C106 on CRS-11 mission on 3 June 2017)
• The first private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to space (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on 2 March 2019)
• The first private company to autonomously dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on 2 March 2019)
• The first use of a full flow staged combustion cycle engine (Raptor) in a free flying vehicle (Starhopper, multiple tests in 2019).
• The first reuse of payload fairing. On 11 November 2019 on Starlink 1 Falcon 9 launch. Fairing was from the ArabSat-6A mission in April earlier that year.
• The first private company to send humans into orbit ((Crew Dragon Demo-2) on May 30, 2020).
• The first private company to send humans to the International Space Station ((Crew Dragon Demo-2) on May 31, 2020).
History of SpaceX: Road to Demo-2.... view.
Major achievements of SpaceX are in the reuse of orbital-class launch vehicles and cost reduction in the space launch industry. Most notable of these being the continued landings and relaunches of the first stage of Falcon 9. As of March 2020, SpaceX has used a single first-stage booster, B1048, at most five times. SpaceX is defined as a private space company and thus its achievements can also be counted as firsts by a private company.
Landmark achievements of SpaceX in chronological order include:• The first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 flight 4 on 28 September 2008)
• The first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to put a commercial satellite in orbit (RazakSAT on Falcon 1 flight 5 on 14 July 2009)
• The first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft (SpaceX Dragon on COTS Demo Flight 1 on 9 December 2010)
• The first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon C2+ on 25 May 2012)
• The first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (SES-8 on Falcon 9 flight 7 on 3 December 2013)
• The first landing of an orbital rocket's first stage on land (Falcon 9 flight 20 on 22 December 2015)
• The first landing of an orbital rocket's first stage on an ocean platform (Falcon 9 flight 23 on 8 April 2016)
• The first relaunch and landing of a used orbital rocket stage (B1021 on Falcon 9 flight 32 on 30 March 2017)
• The first controlled flyback and recovery of a payload fairing (Falcon 9 flight 32 on 30 March 2017)
• The first reflight of a commercial cargo spacecraft. (Dragon C106 on CRS-11 mission on 3 June 2017)
• The first private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to space (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on 2 March 2019)
• The first private company to autonomously dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on 2 March 2019)
• The first use of a full flow staged combustion cycle engine (Raptor) in a free flying vehicle (Starhopper, multiple tests in 2019).
• The first reuse of payload fairing. On 11 November 2019 on Starlink 1 Falcon 9 launch. Fairing was from the ArabSat-6A mission in April earlier that year.
• The first private company to send humans into orbit ((Crew Dragon Demo-2) on May 30, 2020).
• The first private company to send humans to the International Space Station ((Crew Dragon Demo-2) on May 31, 2020).