SpaceX catches a Starship booster with the launch tower
On Starship's fifth flight, the Super Heavy booster returned to the pad and was caught by the tower's arms.
Company
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. builds the Falcon rockets, the Dragon spacecraft and the Starship system, and operates the Starlink satellite network. Its stated long-term goal is to make humanity multiplanetary.
- Founded 2002
- Focus Launch vehicles and spacecraft
Official site: www.spacex.com
About SpaceX
SpaceX's central idea is reuse. Instead of throwing rockets away after one flight, it lands boosters and flies them again, which it first achieved with Falcon 9 in 2015 and 2017. Reuse has made Falcon 9 the world's most frequently flown orbital rocket.
Its customers include NASA, the US military, and commercial satellite operators. It also runs its own Starlink business, which launches satellites on its own rockets, and is developing Starship, a fully reusable system meant for the Moon and Mars.
Stories 13
Starship's fourth flight ends in two controlled splashdowns
Both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage made it back to the water intact.
Starship's first integrated flight test ends in an explosion
The largest rocket ever built lifted off from Texas, but the vehicle was lost about four minutes into flight.
Inspiration4 sends an all-civilian crew to orbit
Four people with no professional astronaut training flew a three-day mission on Crew Dragon.
Crew Dragon carries NASA astronauts to orbit from US soil
Demo-2 was the first crewed orbital launch from the United States since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011.
SpaceX launches its first big batch of Starlink satellites
Sixty satellites went up on one Falcon 9, the start of what grew into the largest satellite network in orbit.
Falcon Heavy launches, with a Tesla Roadster as its payload
SpaceX's most powerful rocket flew for the first time, and two of its boosters landed side by side.
SpaceX flies a used Falcon 9 booster for the first time
A booster that had already flown to orbit and landed was launched again, a milestone for reusable rockets.
Musk unveils his plan to make humanity multi-planetary
At a conference in Mexico, Musk laid out the rocket and spaceship he said would carry people to Mars.
A Falcon 9 first stage lands upright for the first time
SpaceX landed the first stage of an orbital-class rocket back at Cape Canaveral, proving the core idea of reusable rockets.
Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to reach the space station
SpaceX's Dragon capsule berthed with the International Space Station, a first for a private company.
Falcon 1 becomes the first private liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit
After three failures, the fourth Falcon 1 launch reached orbit, a turning point for the young company.
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.