Who owns spacex corporation

Consequently, Alphabet owns about 7. SpaceX was founded in Together with other space enthusiasts, he planned to send a greenhouse to Mars and grow plants on Martian soil.

In service of this plan, he went to Russia to procure ballistic missiles. He came back to America frustrated and decided to build the rockets needed to deploy the greenhouse to Mars. Existing rockets seemed ridiculously expensive to Musk and spotting a niche.

He decided to establish a company that would build affordable rockets, which is how SpaceX was born. About two decades later, Space X is one of the most valuable private companies in the United States.

It has been both a technological and financial success. Musk now has a new objective for the company, which is to improve space travel to the point that a Martian colony can be sustainably established. The increasing valuation of SpaceX has been on the back of its numerous achievements.

For example, it operates the largest satellite constellation globally and holds the record for the most spacecraft launched into space on a single mission. It was also the first company to reuse spacecraft. In addition to its thriving aerospace business, SpaceX, through a division called Starlink, is developing a constellation of thousands of satellites to provide high-speed broadband internet worldwide. Similarweb Unique Visitors. Majestic Referring Domains.

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Founded Status Private. Employees 8, Investors SpaceX General Information Description Designer of rockets and spacecraft intended to realize the goal of making life multi-planetary. Ownership Status. Privately Held backing. Financing Status. Venture Capital-Backed. Primary Industry. Musk spent his early childhood with his brother Kimbal and sister Tosca in South Africa.

His parents divorced when he was Musk obtained his Canadian citizenship that year, in part because he felt it would be easier to obtain American citizenship via that path. In , Musk left Canada to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. However, his move was timed perfectly with the Internet boom, and he dropped out of Stanford after just two days to become a part of it, launching his first company, Zip2 Corporation in Musk became a U.

Musk launched his first company, Zip2 Corporation, in with his brother, Kimbal Musk. Before the sale, Musk owned 11 percent of PayPal stock. Musk founded his third company, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, in with the intention of building spacecraft for commercial space travel.

On May 22, , Musk and SpaceX made history when the company launched its Falcon 9 rocket into space with an unmanned capsule. The vehicle was sent to the International Space Station with 1, pounds of supplies for the astronauts stationed there, marking the first time a private company had sent a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Of the launch, Musk was quoted as saying, "I feel very lucky.

For us, it's like winning the Super Bowl. In December , a Falcon 9 successfully carried a satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit, a distance at which the satellite would lock into an orbital path that matched the Earth's rotation.

In March , SpaceX saw the successful test flight and landing of a Falcon 9 rocket made from reusable parts, a development that opened the door for more affordable space travel. A setback came in November , when an explosion occurred during a test of the company's new Block 5 Merlin engine. SpaceX reported that no one was hurt, and that the issue would not hamper its planned rollout of a future generation of Falcon 9 rockets. The company enjoyed another milestone moment in February with the successful test launch of the powerful Falcon Heavy rocket.

Armed with additional Falcon 9 boosters, the Falcon Heavy was designed to carry immense payloads into orbit and potentially serve as a vessel for deep space missions. For the test launch, the Falcon Heavy was given a payload of Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster, equipped with cameras to "provide some epic views" for the vehicle's planned orbit around the sun.

In July , Space X enjoyed the successful landing of a new Block 5 Falcon rocket, which touched down on a drone ship less than 9 minutes after liftoff. In September , Musk presented an updated design plan for his BFR an acronym for either "Big Fing Rocket" or "Big Falcon Rocket" , a engine behemoth topped by a spaceship capable of carrying at least people.

He revealed that SpaceX was aiming to launch the first cargo missions to Mars with the vehicle in , as part of his overarching goal of colonizing the Red Planet. In March , the entrepreneur told an audience at the annual South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, that he hoped to have the BFR ready for short flights early the following year, while delivering a knowing nod at his previous problems with meeting deadlines.

The port property presented an ideal location for SpaceX, as its mammoth rocket will only be movable by barge or ship when completed. In late March , SpaceX received permission from the U. The satellite network, named Starlink, would ideally make broadband service more accessible in rural areas, while also boosting competition in heavily populated markets that are typically dominated by one or two providers. SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites in May , and followed with another payload of 60 satellites that November.

While this represented significant progress for the Starlink venture, the appearance of these bright orbiters in the night sky, with the potential of thousands more to come, worried astronomers who felt that a proliferation of satellites would increase the difficulty of studying distant objects in space.

Musk is the co-founder, CEO and product architect at Tesla Motors, a company formed in that is dedicated to producing affordable, mass-market electric cars as well as battery products and solar roofs.

In , NASA awarded two contracts for commercial-resupply services. While the funding showed that NASA had confidence in SpaceX's ability to get a spacecraft ready to transport cargo supplies, the company still had work to do.

To get into space with a heavy cargo load, the Dragon spacecraft would require more rocket power than what Falcon 1 could provide. So, SpaceX developed a next-generation rocket, called Falcon 9 , to send Dragon into orbit. Falcon 9 would heft much more cargo: 28, lbs. In addition, SpaceX planned to make the rocket self-landing, and therefore reusable, saving on costs.

SpaceX initially hoped to fly the spacecraft by or , but the development process took years longer than the company thought it would. The maiden flight of Falcon 9 took place on June 4, , with a simulated Dragon payload. The rocket launched successfully, although the landing attempt failed because the parachute didn't work.

SpaceX followed this up by launching the Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft together on Dec. The next and most crucial milestone was space station delivery. Dragon, riding a Falcon 9 rocket, delivered its first cargo to the space station in May under a test flight for the COTS program. The launch was delayed for a few days because of an engine problem, but the rocket lifted off safely on the next try.

Private spaceflight hadn't even been considered when the space station was developed in the s and '90s. SpaceX fulfilled the first of its regular commercial flights to the space station in October That flight achieved most of its objectives, but it experienced a partial rocket failure during launch. The failure ended up stranding a satellite, Orbcomm-OG2, in an abnormally low orbit, which led to the mission's failure.

The initial Falcon Heavy flight , on Feb. Falcon Heavy successfully flew to orbit, carrying a Tesla Roadster an electric car made by Tesla, another company owned by Musk and a spacesuited mannequin nicknamed Starman onboard.