complex 39 june 2015 type private industry aerospace founded june 2002 ; 14 years ago 2002 06 founder elon musk headquarters hawthorne california u.s. 33 55 15 n 118 19 40 w 33.9207 n 118.3278 w 33.9207 ; 118.3278 coordinates 33 55 15 n 118 19 40 w 33.9207 n 118.3278 w 33.9207 ; 118.3278 key people elon musk ceo and cto gwynne shotwell president and coo tom mueller cto of propulsion products falcon 9 dragon services orbital rocket launch number of employees nearly 5 000 1 2 february 2016 website www.spacex.com footnotes references 3 4 5 6 space exploration technologies corporation better known as spacex is an american aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company headquartered in hawthorne california united states . it was founded in 2002 by tesla motors ceo and former paypal entrepreneur elon musk with the goal of creating the technologies to reduce space transportation costs and enable the colonization of mars . 7 it has developed the falcon 1 and falcon 9 launch vehicles both designed to be reusable and the dragon spacecraft which is flown into orbit by the falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the international space station iss with cargo . a manned version of dragon is in development . spacex is funded by government subsidies and contracts with multiple entities . spacex s achievements include the first privately funded liquid propellant rocket falcon 1 to reach orbit in 2008 ; 8 the first privately funded company to successfully launch orbit and recover a spacecraft dragon in 2010 ; and the first private company to send a spacecraft dragon to the iss in 2012 . 9 the launch of ses 8 in 2013 was the first spacex delivery into geosynchronous orbit while the launch of the deep space climate observatory dscovr in 2015 was the company s first delivery beyond earth orbit . spacex began a privately funded reusable launch system technology development program in 2011 and in december 2015 successfully returned a first stage back to a landing pad near the launch site and accomplished a propulsive vertical landing . this was the first such accomplishment by a rocket on an orbital trajectory . 10 on april 8 2016 with the launch of crs 8 spacex successfully vertically landed a first stage on an ocean drone ship landing platform on a mission that also delivered a dragon space capsule to low earth orbit . 11 on may 6 2016 spacex again landed a first stage but on a geostationary transfer orbit mission another first . 12 nasa awarded the company a commercial orbital transportation services cots contract in 2006 to design and demonstrate a launch system to resupply cargo to the international space station iss . spacex as of july 2016 update has flown nine missions to the iss under a cargo resupply contract . 13 nasa also awarded spacex a contract in 2011 to develop and demonstrate a human rated dragon as part of its commercial crew development ccdev program to transport crew to the iss . 14 in september 2016 spacex s ceo elon musk unveiled the interplanetary transport system program an ambitious privately funded initiative to develop space vehicles for use in interplanetary colonization . 15 16 contents 1 history 1.1 achievements 1.2 funding 1.3 goals 1.3.1 mars 1.3.2 reusable rockets 1.4 setbacks 1.4.1 issues in flight 1.4.2 failed launches 1.4.3 pad explosion 2 facilities 2.1 headquarters and rocket manufacturing plant 2.2 satellite development facility 2.3 regional offices 2.4 test and post flight disassembly facilities 2.5 flight operations 2.5.1 new commercial only launch site 2.5.2 crewed mission leased launch site 3 nasa collaborations 3.1 commercial cargo contracts 3.2 commercial crew contracts 3.3 red dragon mars mission concept 4 other contracts 4.1 launch market competition and pricing pressure 5 commercial and government launch contracts summary 6 space vehicles 6.1 falcon launch vehicles 6.2 dragon 6.3 other concepts under development 7 rocket engines 8 see also 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links 11.1 official resources 11.2 fan communities history edit launch of falcon 9 carrying orbcomm og2 m1 falcon 9 carrying crs 7 dragon on slc 40 pad spacex employees with the dragon capsule at spacex hq in hawthorne california february 2015 in 2001 musk conceptualized mars oasis ; a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse on mars containing seeds with dehydrated gel hydrating the gel and having plants grow on martian soil so this would be the furthest that life s ever traveled 17 in an attempt to regain public interest in space exploration and increase the budget of nasa . 18 19 20 but musk realized that even with a much larger space budget travel to mars would be prohibitively expensive and that a fundamental breakthrough in rocket technology was needed . 20 in october 2001 musk travelled to moscow with jim cantrell an aerospace supplies fixer and adeo ressi his best friend from college to buy refurbished icbms dnepr that could send the envisioned payloads into space . 21 the group met with companies such as lavochkin and isc kosmotras . however according to cantrell musk was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the russian chief designers and the group returned to the us empty handed . 22 in february 2002 the group returned to russia to look for three icbms bringing along mike griffin who had worked for the cia s venture capital arm in q tel ; nasa s jet propulsion laboratory ; and was just leaving orbital sciences corporation a maker of satellites and spacecraft . the group met again with kosmotras and were offered one rocket for us 8 million . however this was seen by musk as too expensive ; musk consequently stormed out of the meeting . on the flight back from moscow musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable rockets he needed . 22 according to early tesla and spacex investor steve jurvetson 23 musk calculated that the raw materials for building a rocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at the time . by applying vertical integration principally for cost reasons ; 21 around 85 % of the entire falcon dragon vehicle is produced in house 24 25 and the modular approach from software engineering falcon 9 uses 9 of the merlin engines which were tested on the single engine falcon 1 falcon heavy uses three falcon 9 booster stages spacex could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70 percent gross margin . 26 another reason for vertical integration was musk s belief that reusable rockets couldn t be built with components from preexisting aerospace suppliers . citation needed for example spacex had to design a machine that could friction stir weld aluminium lithium alloy for the airframe of the falcon 9 because such a machine did not exist anywhere in the world . 27 according to musk spacex started with the smallest useful orbital rocket falcon 1 with about half a ton to orbit instead of building a more complex and riskier launch vehicle which could have failed and bankrupted the company . 28 in early 2002 musk was seeking staff for his new space company soon to be named spacex . musk approached renowned rocket engineer tom mueller now spacex s cto of propulsion mueller agreed to work for musk and spacex was born . 29 spacex was first headquartered in a 75 000 square feet warehouse in el segundo california . musk decided spacex s first rocket would be named falcon 1 a nod to star wars millennium falcon . musk planned for falcon 1 s first launch to occur in november 2003 15 months after the company started . 22 in january 2005 spacex bought a 10 % stake in surrey satellite technology . 30 by march 2006 musk had invested us 100 million of his own money into the company . 31 on august 4 2008 spacex accepted a further 20 million investment from founders fund . 32 in early 2012 approximately two thirds of the company were owned by its founder 33 and his 70 million shares were then estimated to be worth 875 million on private markets 34 which roughly valued spacex at 1.3 billion as of february 2012 . 35 after the cots 2 flight in may 2012 the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to 2.4 billion . 36 37 on 16 june 2009 spacex announced the opening of its astronaut safety and mission assurance department . it hired former nasa astronaut ken bowersox to oversee the department as a vice president of the company . 38 however it has since been reported that the former astronaut subsequently left spacex in late 2011 . no reason was given and no replacement in that position has been announced . 39 in 2010 musk s calculations convinced him that the colonization of mars was possible . 40 in 2012 an initial public offering ipo was perceived as possible by the end of 2013 41 but then musk stated in june 2013 that he planned to hold off any potential ipo until after the mars colonial transporter is flying regularly 42 and this was reiterated in 2015 indicating that it would be many years before spacex would become a publicly traded company 43 44 where musk stated that i just don t want spacex to be controlled by some private equity firm that would milk it for near term revenue 45 falcon 9 rocket s first stage on the landing pad after the first successful vertical landing of an orbital rocket stage . falcon 9 first stage on an asds barge after the first successful landing at sea . the company has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2002 growing from 160 employees in november 2005 to more than 500 by july 2008 to over 1 100 in 2010 46 47 1 800 in early 2012 48 and 3 000 by early 2013 . 49 the company had grown to 3 800 employees and contractors by october 2013 50 and had nearly 5 000 in late 2015 1 and february 2016 . 2 achievements edit landmark achievements of spacex include 51 the first privately funded liquid fueled rocket falcon 1 to reach orbit 28 september 2008 the first privately funded company to successfully launch by falcon 9 orbit and recover a spacecraft dragon 9 december 2010 the first private company to send a spacecraft dragon to the international space station 25 may 2012 the first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit ses 8 3 december 2013 the first landing of a first stage orbital capable rocket falcon 9 22 december 2015 1 39 utc the first water landing of a first stage orbital capable rocket falcon 9 8 april 2016 20 53 utc on 22 december 2015 at around 1 29 utc spacex launched an upgraded falcon 9 rocket from cape canaveral air force station into low earth orbit . after completing its primary burn the first stage of the multistage rocket detached from the second stage as usual . the first stage then fired some of its engines to send it back to cape canaveral where it achieved the world s first successful landing of a rocket that was used for an orbital launch . the landing happened at around 1 39 utc on december 22 . stage two successfully deployed eleven communication satellites for orbcomm . 52 funding edit number of spacex launches per year spacex is privately funded . 53 it developed its first launch vehicle falcon 1 and three rocket engines merlin kestrel and draco completely with private capital . spacex contracted with the us government for a portion of the development funding for the falcon 9 launch vehicle which uses a modified version of the merlin rocket engine . 53 spacex is developing the falcon heavy launch