SpaceX is founded with the goal of cheaper spaceflight
Elon Musk used part of his PayPal proceeds to start a rocket company aiming to cut the cost of reaching space.
Archive entry. This article looks back at an event from May 2002. It was drafted with AI assistance from public records and is being fact-checked. See our About page.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, was incorporated in 2002 in California. Elon Musk invested about $100 million of his PayPal proceeds and served as CEO and chief designer.
The company's stated aims were to lower the cost of getting to space and, ultimately, to make human settlement of Mars possible. Early on, many in the industry were skeptical that a startup could build orbital rockets.
First steps
SpaceX began by developing the small Falcon 1 rocket and its own Merlin engine. Reusability, the idea of landing and reflying rockets, became central to its approach in the years that followed.
