Launch
SpaceX
Musk-founded launch company: 691 Falcon flights to 16 August 2026, 12 million Starlink customers, Starship in flight test and a $1.77 trillion Nasdaq debut.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which trades as SpaceX, was founded on 14 March 2002 by Elon Musk and is headquartered at Starbase, Texas, having moved there from Hawthorne, California, in 2024. Musk holds the chairman, chief executive and chief technology officer roles, and Gwynne Shotwell is president and chief operating officer. The company told the Securities and Exchange Commission it employed over 22,000 full-time employees worldwide as of 31 March 2026, on 2025 revenue of $18.7 billion and a net loss of $4.9 billion.
The Falcon fleet is the operating business. Falcon 1 flew five times between 2006 and 2009 and failed three times before reaching orbit on its fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy had flown 691 times as of 16 August 2026, and the company now competes on cadence: on 15 August 2026 it launched a Globalstar replenishment mission from Cape Canaveral and the classified USSF-366 payload from Vandenberg 38.5 minutes apart. That record is not spotless. A Falcon 9 second stage failed to perform its deorbit burn after a 2 February 2026 Starlink launch and reentered uncontrolled, and the Federal Aviation Administration required a mishap investigation. The earlier losses were the CRS-7 breakup in June 2015 and the AMOS-6 pad explosion in September 2016, which destroyed a communications satellite valued at $200 million.
Starship, the fully reusable super-heavy vehicle built and flown at Starbase, remains in flight test. Flight 12 on 22 May 2026 introduced the Version 3 airframe and Raptor V3 engines; a booster engine shut down during ascent, the boostback burn ended early, and Super Heavy was lost in a hard splashdown, which triggered an FAA-supervised mishap investigation. Flight 13 flew on 24 July 2026 after two scrubbed attempts, deployed 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space and splashed down intact in the Indian Ocean, while the booster relit only ten of its engines and was destroyed. NASA restructured the Artemis programme on 27 February 2026, converting Artemis III into a crewed low-Earth-orbit demonstration no earlier than 2027 in which Orion docks with test landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin, and moving the first crewed landing to Artemis IV in 2028.
Starlink funds the rest. SpaceX said the network passed 12 million active customers on 4 June 2026 across more than 160 countries and territories, after adding 4.6 million during 2025. The company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on 12 June 2026 under the ticker SPCX, having priced 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 the previous day to raise $75 billion at an implied valuation of about $1.77 trillion, the largest initial public offering on record and well ahead of the $24.9 billion Saudi Aramco raised in 2019.
What they build and operate
- Falcon 9 · Launch vehicle · Operational
Partly reusable medium-lift rocket with nine Merlin engines on the first stage; first successful launch on 4 June 2010, and 691 Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights had been made by 16 August 2026.[1][10] - Falcon Heavy · Launch vehicle · Operational
Heavy-lift rocket built from three Falcon 9 cores and 27 Merlin engines; maiden flight on 6 February 2018.[1] - Falcon 1 · Launch vehicle · Retired
Small orbital rocket flown five times from 2006 to 2009 with two successes; the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit.[1] - Dragon 2 · Spacecraft · Operational
Crew and cargo capsule serving the International Space Station; its first crewed flight was in May 2020.[1] - Starship · Launch vehicle · In development
Fully reusable super-heavy launch system flown from Starbase; the Version 3 vehicle debuted on Flight 12 in May 2026 and Flight 13 deployed satellites in July 2026.[5][6] - Starship Human Landing System · Spacecraft · In development
Lunar lander version of Starship contracted to NASA; on Artemis III it flies as a test article with a docking mechanism but no operational life-support system.[8][9] - Starlink · Constellation · Operational
Low Earth orbit broadband constellation serving more than 12 million active customers across over 160 countries and territories as of 4 June 2026.[3][1]
Funding
- 11 June 2026 · Initial public offering (Nasdaq: SPCX)
$75 billion from 555.6 million Class A shares at $135 each[2][1]
Milestones
- 14 March 2002
Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp., first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California.[1] - 28 September 2008
Falcon 1 reached orbit on its fourth attempt, after three consecutive launch failures had nearly bankrupted the company.[1] - June 2015
A Falcon 9 carrying the CRS-7 station resupply mission broke up about two minutes into flight, traced to a failed helium pressure vessel strut.[1] - December 2015
Landed a Falcon 9 first stage successfully for the first time, on Flight 20.[1] - September 2016
AMOS-6 and its Falcon 9 were destroyed in an explosion during a static fire test, taking out a communications satellite valued at $200 million.[1] - March 2017
Reflew a recovered orbital-class booster for the first time, on the SES-10 mission.[1] - 30 May 2020
Crew Dragon Demo-2 carried NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station, the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in nine years.[1] - 02 February 2026
A Falcon 9 second stage failed to perform its deorbit burn after deploying 25 Starlink satellites and reentered uncontrolled; the FAA required a mishap investigation.[4] - 27 February 2026
NASA restructured Artemis, turning Artemis III into a crewed low-Earth-orbit demonstration no earlier than 2027 rather than a landing.[8] - 22 May 2026
Starship Flight 12 debuted the Version 3 vehicle; the Super Heavy booster was lost in a hard splashdown and the FAA opened a mishap investigation.[5] - 04 June 2026
Starlink passed 12 million active customers across more than 160 countries and territories.[3] - 12 June 2026
Shares began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker SPCX after a $75 billion offering.[2][1] - 24 July 2026
Starship Flight 13 deployed 20 Starlink V3 satellites and splashed down intact in the Indian Ocean, while the booster relit only ten engines and was destroyed.[6] - 15 August 2026
Launched two Falcon 9 missions 38.5 minutes apart, from Cape Canaveral and from Vandenberg.[7]
Facilities
- SpaceX Starbase · Starbase, Texas
Company headquarters and the Starship production and launch site.[1][6] - Hawthorne factory · Hawthorne, California
Former headquarters that continues to support the Falcon launch business.[1] - Rocket Development and Test Facility · McGregor, Texas
Engine and stage test site.[1]
Leadership
- Elon Musk
Chairman, chief executive officer and chief technology officer (as of 01 May 2026)[11][1] - Gwynne Shotwell
President and chief operating officer (as of 01 May 2026)[11][1]
Sources
WikipediaSpaceXen.wikipedia.org
TechCrunchSpaceX officially prices shares at $135 in the largest IPO evertechcrunch.com
Yahoo FinanceSpaceX's Starlink Surpasses 12M Customers Across 160 Countries As Growth Acceleratesfinance.yahoo.com
The RegisterSpaceX halts Falcon 9 flights after second stage anomalytheregister.com
Spaceflight NowFAA requires SpaceX-led mishap investigation before resumption of Starship launchesspaceflightnow.com
WikipediaStarship flight test 13en.wikipedia.org
Spaceflight NowSpaceX launches record-breaking back-to-back Falcon 9 rockets for Globalstar, U.S. Space Forcespaceflightnow.com
WikipediaArtemis IIIen.wikipedia.org
Scientific AmericanNASA's next Artemis mission pits SpaceX against Blue Origin in a race to the moonscientificamerican.com
WikipediaList of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launchesen.wikipedia.org
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1 registration statementsec.gov
Coverage of SpaceX
Space observatories
Roman launches on Falcon Heavy and separates successfully
The space telescope left Kennedy Space Center on August 30, separated 31 minutes later, and is now beginning a three-month trip to the Sun-Earth L2 region.
India space policy
Starlink’s reported Gen 2 filing adds a constellation step in India
A reported application to IN-SPACe would seek authority to provide Gen 2 capacity in India, but it does not settle the separate spectrum and security steps before customer service can begin.
Space observatories
Roman reaches Falcon Heavy hangar after fairing encapsulation
The observatory has completed flight-readiness review, entered Falcon Heavy’s payload fairing and reached the hangar for mating; NASA’s next formal go/no-go review is August 28.
Space cybersecurity
Preprint finds regional security gaps among exposed Starlink-connected hosts
A Censys snapshot tied about 33,000 exposed IPs inside Starlink’s network to higher operating-system vulnerability and legacy-protocol rates in several regions, but it did not test Starlink infrastructure, prove exploitability or establish cause.
Commercial launch
FAA’s 4,288-operation high case is not a US launch count
The agency’s upper scenario covers commercial launches and re-entries through fiscal 2036, including US-licensed activity abroad. It still points to heavier work for licensing teams, busy ranges and shared airspace.
Satellite communications
GSA counts 283 operator–satellite partnerships; 23 phone services have launched
The June snapshot puts satellite-to-cellphone activity at 123 announced partnerships: 23 launched, 27 trialling and 73 planned. The figures show commercial movement, but announcements still dominate.
Lunar science
LRO measures 18-metre crater from Falcon 9’s uncontrolled Moon impact
The mark is smaller than two pre-impact academic forecasts. The sharper operational lesson is that uncertainty around the spent stage’s path prompted Danuri’s team to consider a possible close encounter.
Launch
Sidus reiterates LizzieSat vibration-test completion in second-quarter results
The completion had been public since June 16; neither that announcement nor the August 14 results identifies the day the qualification work finished.
Launch cadence
SpaceX reaches 100 missions in 2026 with Starlink 17-50
Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg and B1097 landed after its 12th flight. The sources reviewed did not separately confirm deployment of the 24 satellites.
Starship Flight 13
Ship 40 reaches calmer water, giving SpaceX its first intact Starship to inspect
The upper stage survived its July 24 splashdown and about 24 days at sea. Its returned tiles and vehicle hardware can now be compared with reentry imagery and sensor data, although ocean exposure complicates the diagnosis.
Satellite finance
Lightspeed financing sits outside Telesat’s looming GEO debt
The first-half filing separates the LEO project’s financing from about C$2.3 billion of Telesat GEO obligations due at the end of 2026, while retaining a first-quarter 2028 service target.
Military satellite communications
Space Force awards five vendors to test shared data-network interfaces
Five companies will each receive a $12 million prototype package to show that independently built satellites and terminals can exchange data through the Space Data Network. The demonstrations are integration tests, not orders for an operational fleet, and they sit beside a separate $2.29 billion backbone award made to SpaceX in May.
Satellite communications
First eight Globalstar 2-R satellites reach orbit
The replenishment spacecraft have established contact and begun commissioning, opening the orbital phase of a 17-satellite refresh without yet entering operational service.
Industry
VinSpace plans first satellites for 2027 SpaceX Transporter launch
The contract gives the young Vietnamese venture a named route to orbit, but no mission number, spacecraft count or specifications, price, or fixed launch date is public.
Commercial Earth observation
GalaxEye loses contact with Drishti before OptoSAR payload test
The spacecraft proved early-orbit systems and in-house mission operations, but GalaxEye says imaging never began; its solar-storm explanation remains preliminary as two larger follow-on satellites are planned.
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