History of SpaceX
[2][3] As early as August 2001, in contemporary sources, Musk has publicly expressed his support for making humans an interplanetary species at the Mars Society's annual convention.
[4] Musk and his team travelled twice to Russia, once in October 2001 and another in February 2002 with Michael D. Griffin, to obtain a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile to launch Mars Oasis.
[3][1]: 10 After the second failed attempt to procure a missile, the Mars Oasis plan was abandoned and Musk pondered the feasibility of building a rocket himself.
[1]: 11–12 In early 2002, with that realization, Musk met with aerospace engineers at a hotel in Los Angeles International Airport to discuss founding a space launch company, with reportedly some having scoffed at the idea.
In April, from that group he invited five that could join the company as early employees: Michael Griffin, Jim Cantrell, John Garvey, Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson.
Musk provided half of his $180 million from PayPal stocks to the newly founded company securing both employees with two-years' worth of salary.
Hans Koenigsmann, who was recommended by Thompson and had met Musk a few months earlier, joined SpaceX and was in charge of making the rocket's avionics (electronic systems).
[1]: 16–17 At first, SpaceX's employees would meet at hotels in airports, but later the company headquartered at a building in 1310 East Grand Avenue, El Segundo, California.
Musk personally interviewed the first three thousand employees, most were college graduates (because they do not have family attachments), and pushed them to work long hours at their highest effort.
[1]: 40, 44–46 At 9:50 P.M., 11 March 2003, the Merlin engine completed its first ever full firing with a duration of about half a second,[1]: 27–28 achieving a thrust of 270,000 N (60,000 lbf) and 93% combustion efficiency.
[1]: 51–53 In the first week of May 2005, SpaceX tried to perform its first static fire attempt, but after many aborts and recycling due to software bugs and bad instruments, its liquid oxygen supply ran out and the test was cancelled for the day.
One day before the first attempted Falcon 1 launch, due to frustration and intense pressure, the employees on Omelek went on strike; this was quickly resolved by a supply drop of chicken wings and cigarettes.
After the rocket was assembled, on February 6, the second stage's avionics short circuited and almost lead to the launch's months-long delay, if not for the quickly obtained capacitor from the mainland.
[1]: 82–84 The maiden launch of Falcon 1 happened on 24 March 2006 at 22:30 UTC,[13] at which a fire damaged the rocket's pressurization system and cause the Merlin engine to flame off at T+29 seconds.
[14] The next morning, SpaceX employees and civilians from the atoll cleaned up the rocket's debris and eventually found FalconSAT-2 lying inside a machine shop.
[23] In 2012, an initial public offering (IPO) was perceived as possible by the end of 2013,[24] 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",[25] and this was reiterated in 2015 indicating that it would be many years before SpaceX would become a publicly traded company,[26][27] 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.
[53] In 2004, the company plans called for "development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand", with each size increase resulting in a significant decrease in cost per pound to orbit.
[58] SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell said at the Singapore Satellite Industry Forum in summer 2013 "If we get this [reusable technology] right, and we're trying very hard to get this right, we're looking at launches to be in the US$5 to 7 million range, which would really change things dramatically.
[25] In March 2014, COO Gwynne Shotwell said that once the Falcon Heavy and Dragon 2 crew version are flying, the focus for the company engineering team will be on developing the technology to support the transport infrastructure necessary for Mars missions.
[31] In August 2020, SpaceX indicated it was looking to build a resort in South Texas with the intent to turn "Boca Chica into a '21st century Spaceport'".
Work has continued steadily at the location, but the FAA and SpaceX have faced a number of legal challenges from environmental advocacy groups regarding threats to wildlife along with other complaints.
Since spacecraft like the Dragon were classified as munitions, and considered weapons under arms regulations until November 2014, SpaceX Mission controllers were unable to release more information to the public.
[74] The problem was discovered to be a failed 2 ft (61 cm) steel strut, purchased from a supplier, on a helium pressure vessel, which broke due to the force of acceleration.
[75] The software issue was also fixed; in addition, an analysis of the entire program was carried out in order to ensure proper abort mechanisms are in place for future rockets and their payload.
[83] In late September, SpaceX stated that interim results suggested that a major breach of the cryogenic helium system of the second stage rocket had occurred.
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.
Google and Fidelity joined the then current investorship group of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.
[103] In 2020, Abu Dhabi-based IHC or International Holding Group bought 94% stakes in a private equity fund namely, Falcon CI IV LP, which had invested in SpaceX.
Following the purchase of stakes, SpaceX completed $850 million worth of equity funding round, taking the total value of the company to nearly $74 billion in March 2021.
Sheikh Tahnoon, who is the National Security Adviser of UAE also heads several other Abu Dhabi-based ventures including the International Golden Group,[106] which has ties to the Libyan and Yemeni civil war.
