History
From a failed attempt to buy Russian missiles to a $2 trillion public company. Scroll the years or jump to one.
Mars Oasis
Musk speaks at the Mars Society convention, then conceives “Mars Oasis” — a small greenhouse to land on Mars and re-ignite public interest in space.
Two trips to Moscow
Musk tries to buy refurbished ICBMs at ~$8M each; both trips fail. With future NASA chief Michael Griffin on the second, he concludes he should build rockets himself.
SpaceX is incorporated
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., El Segundo, California. Musk puts in about $100M of his ~$180M PayPal proceeds.
Employees #1, #2 and #11
Tom Mueller (propulsion) and Chris Thompson join in April; Gwynne Shotwell is hired as head of sales in August.
First Merlin firing
About half a second.
Falcon 1, Flight 1 fails
A corroded nut causes a fuel-line fire on Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll. NASA awards SpaceX a COTS cargo-development contract later that year.
Flight 2 fails
Stage recontact and propellant slosh; the rocket reaches 289 km.
Flight 3 fails — “running on fumes”
Residual thrust from the new Merlin 1C causes stage recontact. SpaceX is 0 for 3. Founders Fund invests $20M the next day.
Falcon 1 reaches orbit
Flight 4 carries the RatSat mass simulator: the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to orbit. Musk has said a fourth failure would have ended the company.
The Christmas rescue
NASA awards the $1.6B CRS-1 cargo contract (Musk: “I love you guys!”); the next day Tesla's emergency funding closes. Musk calls 2008 “the worst year of my life.”
Falcon 1's last flight
RazakSAT for Malaysia — the first commercial launch. Falcon 1 cost ~$90–100M to develop and “could not work as a business.”
Falcon 9 flies
First flight reaches orbit. In December, Dragon becomes the first private spacecraft launched, orbited and recovered.
Dragon berths with the ISS
The first commercial spacecraft to reach the station.
The first landing
Falcon 9 Flight 20 returns its booster to Landing Zone 1 — the first orbital-class booster landing.
The Mars rocket is unveiled
At the IAC in Guadalajara: the Interplanetary Transport System, ancestor of Starship.
First reflight
SES-10 launches on a flown booster.
Falcon Heavy
The most powerful rocket since Saturn V debuts with a Tesla Roadster and Starman aboard; two side boosters land together.
First Starlink batch
60 satellites. Seven years later: more than 11,000 in orbit.
Demo-2
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley fly Crew Dragon — the first crewed launch from US soil in nine years.
HLS and SN15
NASA picks Starship as the Artemis lunar lander (Apr 16); Starship SN15 lands after a 10-km hop (May 5).
Starship's first flight
The full stack lifts off, tumbles and is destroyed; the pad is wrecked. Six more flights follow over the next two years.
The booster catch
Flight 5: Super Heavy returns to the tower and is caught by the arms.
HQ moves to Starbase
From Hawthorne, California, to Texas.
Starbase becomes a city
Voters approve incorporation; a SpaceX VP is mayor.
$800B and an IPO plan
A tender at $421 a share values the company at ~$800B; Musk confirms an IPO is coming.
SpaceX buys xAI
All-stock, $1.25T combined — the largest merger ever. X, Grok and Colossus join SpaceX.
IPO day
SPCX opens on Nasdaq at $150 after pricing at $135; closes $161, ~$2.1T; Musk becomes the first trillionaire.
Starbase Louisiana
A $100B second spaceport is announced.
Starship reaches orbit
Flight 14 deploys 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
First profitable quarter — and merger talks
$4.4B net income; SpaceX and Tesla boards form committees to study combining.