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81-516: The lander concept was initiated in 2019, and in April 2020, Blue Origin won a US$ 579 million contract from NASA for a year-long design concept study to be completed in early 2021 in competition with two other designs. NASA had intended to subsequently issue build and test contracts to one or two of the three 2020 awardees in order to advance the human landing element of the Artemis Program. In

162-472: A $ 1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to $ 46 billion . In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $ 1.61 billion in an equity round from 99 investors at a per share value of approximately $ 420 , raising the company valuation to approximately $ 74 billion . By 2021, SpaceX had raised more than $ 6 billion in equity financing. Most of

243-459: A Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test . The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at $ 200 million , was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels. Though not considered an unsuccessful flight,

324-420: A booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021. Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel , after he announced a $ 100 million donation to the X Prize Foundation

405-587: A complete discussion of the historical and political circumstances that led to the hostilities between the United States and France and their resolution by treaty. The cases, termed "French Spoliation Claims", continued in the court until 1915. In 1925, Congress changed the structure of the Court of Claims by authorizing the Court to appoint seven commissioners who were empowered to hear evidence in judicial proceedings and report on findings of fact. The judges of

486-522: A crew transport vehicle to the ISS. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012. In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth $ 875 million on private markets , valuing SpaceX at $ 1.3 billion . In May 2012, with

567-630: A law to convert the Court of Claims into an Article III court and to raise the number of commissioners to 15. In spite of the Congressional statement of the Court's status, when Judge J. Warren Madden was sitting by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit , one of the parties asked for the decision to be thrown out on the basis that Madden was not a valid judge in that court. On appeal,

648-405: A private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet of things (IoT) devices, for $ 524 million . In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network. SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift Falcon 1

729-417: A revenue of over $ 10 billion in 2024. In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated $ 100,000 to his Mars Society , joining its board of directors for a short time. He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis , a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for

810-535: A solicitor appointed by the President. Prior to the establishment of the Court, members of Congress believed that it would be a violation of sovereign immunity and the separation of powers to empower an institution to provide monetary awards from the Treasury. However, over time, the workload related to the assessment of monetary claims became heavier, leading members of Congress to change its interpretation of

891-474: Is an American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas . Since its founding in 2001, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion , reusable launch vehicle , human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. By the late 2010s, SpaceX had become the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence rivaling that of

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972-420: Is the largest launch vehicle in history and aims to fully realize the company's vision of a fully-reusable, cost-effective and adaptable launch vehicle. SpaceX is also developing its own space suit and astronaut via its Polaris program as well as developing the human lander for lunar missions under NASA's Artemis program . SpaceX is not publicly traded; a space industry newspaper estimated that SpaceX has

1053-466: Is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space , ultimately by a factor of ten. SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle , the Falcon 1 , with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle . The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately $ 90 million to $ 100 million . The Falcon rocket series

1134-634: The Chinese space program and eclipsing all those of its private competitors. SpaceX, NASA and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts . SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2001 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to a sustainable colony on Mars . In 2008, when SpaceX was almost bankrupt, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towards

1215-574: The Court of Federal Claims . Before the Court of Claims was established, monetary claims against the federal government were normally submitted through petitions to Congress. By the time of the Court's creation, the workload had become unwieldy so Congress gave the Court jurisdiction to hear all monetary claims based upon a law, a regulation, or a federal government contract . The Court was required to report its findings to Congress and to prepare bills for payments to claimants whose petitions were approved by

1296-649: The Department of the Treasury rather than directly to Congress. The moneys to cover these costs were then made a part of the appropriation for the Treasury Department. The conflict inherent between the two provisions was made manifest when in 1864, the decision in Gordon v. United States was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied that it had jurisdiction because the decisions of

1377-789: The Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station . After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to $ 2.4 billion or $ 20 /share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $ 1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $ 200 million , with Musk investing approximately $ 100 million and other investors having put in about $ 100 million . SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of

1458-704: The Dynetics Human Landing System (DHLS)—with US$ 253 million in NASA funding, and SpaceX, with its Starship HLS concept, with US$ 135 million in NASA design funding. Initial design work for the Integrated Lander Vehicle began in 2019. ILV was designed by "the National Team", consisting of Blue Origin , Lockheed Martin , Northrop Grumman , and Draper . Blue Origin led the combined integration effort, and designed

1539-584: The Falcon 5 . The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9 , a reusable heavier lift vehicle . Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA , which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The overall contract award

1620-637: The Starship and Starlink projects. The purpose of the Starship vehicle is to enable large-scale transit of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX's Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with a payload capacity of 100+ tons. Construction of initial prototypes and tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction and testing moved to

1701-480: The first successful first-stage landing in 2015 and re-launch of the first stage in 2017 . Falcon Heavy , built from three Falcon 9 boosters, first flew in 2018 after a more than decade-long development process. As of October 2024, the company's Falcon 9 rockets have landed and flown again more than 330 times , reaching 1–2 launches a week. These milestones delivered the company much-needed investment and SpaceX sought to diversify its sources of income. In 2019,

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1782-425: The modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch costs. In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer, Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found

1863-565: The California Secretary of State. The move to relocate SpaceX's headquarters was seen as largely symbolic, at least in the short term. The Hawthorne facility continues to support the company's Falcon launch vehicles, which was SpaceX's workhorse product in 2024. SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission featured the first-ever private spacewalk, marking a major milestone in commercial space exploration. In January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance

1944-603: The Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions after certification. In January 2015, SpaceX raised $ 1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments , in exchange for 8.33% of

2025-613: The Commission for years. One of the most famous of these cases was United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians , which ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Aside from its large judgment awarded to the Sioux, the case also featured interesting questions about judicial power and the ability of Congress to waive the Federal government's legal defense of res judicata to allow a claim to be judicially determined. In 1982, Congress abolished

2106-649: The Constitution and seek to establish an institution to alleviate the workload. The Court of Claims was established in 1855 to adjudicate certain claims brought against the United States government by veterans of the Mexican–American War . Initially, the court met at the Willard Hotel , from May to June 1855, when it moved to the US Capitol. There, the court met in the Supreme Court's chamber in

2187-438: The Court of Claims was an Article I or legislative court and so Congress had the authority to reduce the salaries of the judges of the Court of Claims. Beginning in 1948, Congress directed that when directed by the court, the commissioner could make recommendations for conclusions of law (62  Stat.   976 ). Chief Judge Wilson Cowen made that mandatory under the court rules in 1964. On July 28, 1953, Congress passed

2268-598: The Court of Claims would then serve as a board of review for the commissioners. In 1932, Congress reduced the salary of the judges of the Court of Claims as part of the Legislative Appropriation Act of 1932. Thomas Sutler Williams was one of the judges of the Court, and he sued the federal government by claiming that his salary could not be cut because the Constitution had specified that judicial salaries could not be reduced. The Supreme Court ruled on Williams v. United States in 1933, deciding that

2349-472: The Court of Claims, hence any appeals, were subject to review by an executive department. Less than a year later, Congress passed a law removing review of the Court of Claims from the Treasury Department. In 1887, Congress passed the Tucker Act (24  Stat.   505 ), which further restricted the claims that could be submitted directly to Congress and required the claims instead to be submitted to

2430-465: The Court of Claims. It broadened the court's jurisdiction so that "claims founded upon the Constitution" could be heard. In particular, this meant that monetary claims based on takings under the eminent domain clause of the Fifth Amendment could be brought before the Court of Claims. The Tucker Act also opened the Court to tax refund suits. Depredations against American shipping committed by

2511-400: The Court. Since only Congress was constitutionally empowered to make appropriations, Congress still had to approve the bills and reports, but it usually did so pro forma . The Court originally had three judges, who were given lifetime appointments. The judges were authorized to appoint commissioners to take depositions and issue subpoenas. The federal government was represented in the Court by

Integrated Lander Vehicle - Misplaced Pages Continue

2592-519: The Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months. In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a $ 75 million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as

2673-670: The French during the Quasi-War of 1793 to 1800 led to claims against France that were relinquished by the terms of the Treaty of 1800 . Since the claims against France were no longer valid, claimants continually petitioned Congress for the relief that had been waived by the treaty. Only on January 20, 1885, a law was passed, 23 Stat. 283, to provide for consideration of the matter before the Court of Claims. The lead case, Gray v. United States , 21 Ct. Cl. 340, written by Judge John Davis, includes

2754-613: The HLS funds allocated by Congress . NASA has indicated that Blue Origin would be free to compete for subsequent missions that are not a part of the initial two demonstration flights. It is unclear what plans exist within Blue Origin for continuing on with the work, considering the Moon landing system architecture had become dependent on the existence of major subsystems being designed and built by other vendors, who also did not receive more NASA funding after early 2021. Blue Origin protested

2835-705: The ILV HLS variant was tentatively planned to be launched to lunar orbit by one of several different launch vehicles —including, potentially, the Blue Origin New Glenn or the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur —for the lunar transit to join up with the NASA Lunar Gateway and a NASA crew to be shuttled to the lunar surface. In the mission concept, a NASA Orion spacecraft would carry the NASA crew to

2916-448: The Moon. On 18 November 2023, SpaceX launched its second integrated Starship test , with both vehicles flying for a few minutes before separately exploding. In early March 2024 SpaceX announced that it was targeting 14 March as the tentative launch date for its next uncrewed Starship launch configuration flight test, pending the issuance of a "launch license" by the FAA . This license

2997-467: The Supreme Court, in Glidden Co. v. Zdanok , held that the Court of Claims was a proper Article III court, and its judges could sit by designation and assignment on other courts. Ironically, the judges could no longer sit on Congressional reference cases because of this change since an independent court could not act in an advisory role to Congress. The solution, enacted by Congress in 1966, was to have

3078-539: The award to SpaceX at the US Government Accountability Office , but lost the protest. On 30 July 2021, the GAO rejected the protest and found that "NASA did not violate procurement law" in awarding the contract to SpaceX, who bid a much lower cost and more capable human and cargo lunar landing capability for NASA Artemis. Soon after the appeal was rejected, a contracted payment of $ 300 million

3159-597: The basement of the Capitol until it was given its space to use. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress asked that the court be given the power to issue final judgments. Congress granted the power with the Act of March 3, 1863, and it explicitly allowed the judgments to be appealed to the Supreme Court . However, it also modified the law governing the Court so that its reports and bills were sent to

3240-775: The capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 100.3 billion . On 16 April 2021, Starship HLS won a contract to play a critical role in the NASA crewed spaceflight Artemis program . By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink . A new round of financing in 2022 valued SpaceX at $ 127 billion . In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas , landing

3321-565: The company Vector Launch ), rocket engineer Tom Mueller , and Chris Thompson. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California . Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees. Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX

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3402-481: The company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage. A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when

3483-404: The company raised $ 350 million , which raised its valuation to $ 21 billion . In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts. By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about $ 12 billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This made SpaceX

3564-414: The company, establishing the company valuation at approximately $ 12 billion . The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink , to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites. The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem

3645-522: The competition from SpaceX. Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA). The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over $ 400 million over the years. In September 2014, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, Kevin Crigler, awarded SpaceX

3726-658: The descent element. Northrop Grumman designed the transfer element, for the initial engine firing to place the ILV on a trajectory from the Gateway space station in NRHO ( near-rectilinear halo orbit ) and toward the lunar surface with an initial descent burn. Lockheed-Martin designed the ascent element, that will depart the lunar surface and return the astronauts to the Gateway and Orion capsule in lunar orbit. The HLS initial design phase

3807-569: The development of the larger Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon 1 capsule to satisfy NASA 's COTS contracts for deliveries to the International Space Station . By 2012, SpaceX finished all COTS test flights and began delivering Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station. Also around that time, SpaceX started developing hardware to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable . The company demonstrated

3888-755: The end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft . In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $ 396 million to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program . The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new U.S. launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike . The first three launches of

3969-606: The event, the ILV proposal was not selected by NASA in April 2021, and a sole HLS award was won by SpaceX with the Starship HLS proposal. Blue Origin protested the award to SpaceX at the US Government Accountability Office , but lost the protest by late July. In mid-August, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims challenging "NASA's unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals." The National Team of Blue Origin/Northrop Grumman/Lockheed-Martin/Draper

4050-417: The first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning to deploy what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year. In 2022, most SpaceX launches focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 6,000 satellites in orbit. On 16 July 2021, SpaceX entered an agreement to acquire Swarm Technologies ,

4131-474: The first operational satellite of the Starlink internet satellite constellation came online. In subsequent years, Starlink generated the bulk of SpaceX's income and paved the way for its Starshield military counterpart. In 2020, SpaceX began to operate its Dragon 2 capsules to deliver crewed missions for NASA and private entities. Around this time, SpaceX began building test prototypes for Starship , which

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4212-458: The first successful launch achieved on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $ 30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarding $ 1.6 billion to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1

4293-794: The greater war between Russia and Ukraine, Starlink was extensively used . In 2022, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year. SpaceX launched a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, with 61 launches in total. All but one (a Falcon Heavy in November) was on a Falcon 9 rocket. In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire its parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $ 2.2 million . On 16 July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California , to SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas . Musk said this

4374-670: The lander where they would depart and descend to the lunar surface in the ILV. After lunar surface operations, the ILV ascent element would ascend and return the crew to the Orion. To be built by Northrop Grumman based on Cygnus cargo vehicle. Uses the BE-7 engine. To be built by Blue Origin, based on Blue Moon proposal - To use BE-7 engine. To be built by Lockheed-Martin - based on technology used in Orion capsule. Uses 3 XLR-132 engines for main propulsion. SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. , commonly referred to as SpaceX ,

4455-469: The landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings ( VTOL ). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013. SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide. That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face

4536-412: The launch sequence of a space vehicle. In the case of a rocket that must be self-destructed during its ascent, max q occurs at the point of self-destruction. Eventually, the vehicle lost control and spun erratically until the automated flight termination system was activated, which intentionally destroyed the rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and other individuals familiar with the space industry have referred to

4617-462: The leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches. In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company , and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, using a small number of SpaceX employees, which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018. During 2018, The Boring Company

4698-432: The long term were also called into question. Additionally, NASA found that Blue Origin did not provide a comprehensive plan to operate the vehicle commercially, beyond the NASA contracted work. Although NASA had previously stated it wanted multiple dissimilar Human Landing Systems, "only one design was selected for an initial uncrewed demonstration and the first crewed landing, due to significant budget constraints" based on

4779-457: The new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year. On 20 April 2023, Starship's first orbital flight test ended in a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, multiple engines in the booster progressively failed, causing the vehicle to reach max q later than planned. "Max q" is the theoretical point of maximal mechanical stress which occurs during

4860-555: The previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best carbon capture technology . In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Since that invasion and in

4941-531: The project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell . Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael Griffin , who later became the 11th Administrator of NASA , but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home, Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead. By applying vertical integration , using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting

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5022-553: The rocket explosion sent the company into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned to flight in January 2017. In March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space. The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket. In July 2017,

5103-401: The rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well, and consequently Tesla , SolarCity , and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress. The financial situation started to turn around with

5184-415: The test flight as a success. Musk said at the time that it would take "six to eight weeks" to get the infrastructure prepared for another launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX executive stated the company had been ready to launch the next test flight since September. He accused government regulators of disrupting the project's progress, adding the delay could lead to China beating U.S. astronauts back to

5265-494: The trial judges hear the cases, upon assignment by the chief judge of the trial division. Two more judges were added to the court in 1966, bringing the total to seven. Congress terminated the Indian Claims Commission in 1978 and required that any pending cases to be transferred to the Court of Claims. Of the 170 cases so transferred, many were complicated longstanding accounting claims that had been before

5346-526: The two lunar demonstration flights, in a contract valued at US$ 2.94 billion over several years. There were technical weaknesses identified in the Blue Origin proposal which was not selected. "Immature propulsion and communications systems, along with concerns about third party suppliers, 'create serious doubt as to the realism of Blue Origin's proposed development schedule,' according to the source selection statement" from NASA. The significant redesigns necessary of ILV to build "a more sustainable architecture" for

5427-613: Was $ 278 million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft , Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon. As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit , using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft. The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1 ,

5508-401: Was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk. In 2019 SpaceX raised $ 1.33 billion of capital across three funding rounds. By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 33.3 billion and reached $ 36 billion by March 2020. On 19 August 2020, after

5589-475: Was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims (67  Stat.   226 ), and abolished in 1982. Then, its jurisdiction was assumed by the newly created United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and United States Claims Court (96  Stat.   25 ), which was later renamed

5670-475: Was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts ( Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken ) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2 , making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida. In May 2019, SpaceX launched

5751-464: Was because the recently passed California AB1955 bill "and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies". This new law in California bans school districts from requiring that teachers notify parents about changes to a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The headquarters officially moved to Brownsville, Texas in August 2024, according to records filed with

5832-486: Was granted on 13 March 2024. On 14 March 2024 at 13:25 UTC, Starship launched for the 3rd time and for the first time Starship reached its planned suborbital trajectory. The flight ended with the booster experiencing a malfunction shortly before landing and the ship being lost during reentry over the Indian Ocean. On 4 June 2024, SpaceX received the launch license for Starship's 4th test flight. The licensure itself

5913-511: Was just one of three organizations who developed lunar lander designs for the Artemis program over a year-long period in 2020–21 under the NASA HLS funding rubric. The funding for the design process during 2020/21 was that NASA would pay the combined contractors US$ 579 million in design development funding. The other teams selected were Dynetics —with SNC and other unspecified companies with

5994-425: Was made to SpaceX. The protest action delayed NASA from authorizing work on the contract, and thus delayed the start of work by SpaceX for 95 days. In mid-August, Blue Origin filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Federal Claims challenging "NASA's unlawful and improper evaluation of proposals." The ILV lander system design consisted of three elements: a transfer element, a descent element, and an ascent element. ILV

6075-505: Was named after Star Wars ' s Millennium Falcon fictional spacecraft. In 2004, SpaceX protested against NASA to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of a sole-source contract awarded to Kistler Aerospace . Before the GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract, and formed the COTS program . In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through

6156-548: Was notable in that it was the first time that the FAA included a clause that would allow SpaceX to launch subsequent test flights without a mishap investigation, provided that they met a similar launch profile and used the same specification of hardware. The provision could prove to speed the development timeline. On 12 October 2024, SpaceX received FAA approval for Starship's 5th test flight. SpaceX launched Starship on its 6th test flight on 19 November 2024. A significant milestone

6237-641: Was planned to be a ten-month program, ending on 28 February 2021, where NASA planned to evaluate which contractors would be offered contracts for initial demonstration missions and select firms for development and maturation of their lunar lander system designs in February. However, on 27 January 2021, NASA informed each of the HLS contractors that the original ten-month program would be extended two months to end on or before 30 April 2021. On April 16, 2021, NASA rejected Integrated Lander Vehicle and instead selected Starship HLS for crewed lunar lander development plus

6318-469: Was proposed to be used for long-duration crewed lunar landings as part of NASA 's Artemis program . The Integrated Lander Vehicle (ILV)—also known as the "National HLS"—was designed for long-duration in-space use, as well as long stays on the lunar surface. The Blue Origin ILV system was proposed to NASA to dock in lunar orbit either with the Lunar Gateway or with the Orion crew vehicle. If built,

6399-708: Was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009. This allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier . SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle,

6480-469: Was the first launch vehicle developed and was retired in 2009. The medium-lift Falcon 9 and the heavy-lift Falcon Heavy are both operational. Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of placing several hundred kilograms into low Earth orbit . It launched five times between 2006 and 2009, of which two were successful. The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit. United States Court of Claims The Court of Claims

6561-403: Was traced to a failed two-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel , which broke free due to the force of acceleration . This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank , causing the failure. SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20 . In April 2016,

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