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68-669: SpaceX CRS-18 , also known as SpX-18 , was SpaceX 's 18th flight to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services program for NASA . It was launched on 25 July 2019 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The same Dragon capsule has previously flown to the ISS in April 2015 and December 2017 . This was the first time a capsule was used for a third flight. In February 2016, it

136-472: 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

204-459: 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,

272-420: 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

340-473: 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

408-459: A dozen Starshield prototypes and operational satellites were launched on Falcon 9. Reuters reported that these satellites have never been acknowledged by SpaceX or the US government and remain classified. Images were posted online of the two SpaceX-built Space Development Agency Tranche 0 Flight 1 Tracking Layer infrared imaging satellites that launched on 2 April 2023. After

476-689: A human-rated commercial space program through 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

544-405: 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

612-400: 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 the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell . Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael Griffin , who later became

680-431: 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 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

748-570: Is little information she is allowed to disclose about Starshield, she has noted "very good collaboration" between the intelligence community and SpaceX on the program. The U.S. Congressional Research Service reports that future satellites in Starshield's participating SDA program may wield interceptor missiles, hypersonic projectiles, or directed energy weapons , with the program's founder adding "since Reagan’s day, technology has advanced enough that putting both sensors and shooters in space

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816-559: Is not only possible but relatively easy." According to SDA Director Derek Tournear , later satellites will take on the “extremely difficult” task of maintaining contact with missiles in flight. The former four-star general Terrence O'Shaughnessy , who previously ran U.S. Northern Command , is the vice president for SpaceX's Special Programs Group who is thought to be involved with Starshield. The Wall Street Journal reported that Starshield's online job postings required people with top-secret clearances, as well as experience working with

884-808: The Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The overall contract award 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

952-474: 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 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

1020-709: 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

1088-637: 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

1156-486: The United States Senate Committee on Armed Services for a layered capability with lethal follow-on that incorporates machine learning and artificial intelligence to gather and act upon sensor data quickly. As of 2024, Terrence O’Shaughnessy reportedly has had a high-level role at Starshield, though there is no indication that SpaceX is working on anything related to lethal weapons. SpaceX

1224-618: 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 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

1292-730: 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, 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

1360-565: 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

1428-603: 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

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1496-652: The Defense Department and intelligence community — such as representing Starshield to Pentagon combatant commands. The first satellites were designed for the Space Development Agency and outfitted with advanced infrared sensors meant to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. In 2021, Starshield had entered a $ 1.8 billion classified contract with the U.S. government, revealed in 2023, to construct hundreds of spy satellites for continuous real-time monitoring of targets around

1564-746: The ISS: The Dragon spacecraft also featured a handful of ceramic heat shield tiles, meant to flight-test a critical component of the SpaceX Starship spacecraft. SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. , commonly referred to as SpaceX , 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

1632-399: The International Space Station. Also around that time, SpaceX started developing hardware to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable . The company demonstrated 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,

1700-448: 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

1768-768: The SpaceX contract is the only one to have been issued to date. The one-year Starshield contract was awarded on September 1, 2023. The contract is expected to support 54 mission partners across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard. In February 2024, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter to Elon Musk stating that

1836-673: The Starshield program was potentially in breach of contract for not providing access to U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan when "global access" was "possibly" required by the contract. SpaceX responded that they were in full compliance with their U.S. government contracts. SpaceX had notified the Select Committee a week earlier that they were misinformed, but the Select Committee "chose to contact media before seeking additional information [regarding Starshield military use in Taiwan]". In

1904-683: The Tracking Layer Tranche ;0 of the Space Force's National Defense Space Architecture . The launch was rescheduled multiple times but it eventually launched in April 2023. In 2020, SpaceX hired retired four-star general Terrence J. O'Shaughnessy who according to some sources is associated with Starlink's military satellite development and according to one source is listed as a "chief operating officer" at SpaceX. While still in active duty, O'Shaughnessy advocated before

1972-826: 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

2040-481: 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

2108-483: 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 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

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2176-404: 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

2244-472: 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, 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

2312-635: The company's dedicated Starshield product line. Clare Hopper, head of the Space Force’s Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO) stated that demand for Starlink's commercial service is "off the charts" and that currently all of their supported users are still using the commercial Starlink satellite constellation, but that the DoD has "unique service plans that contain privileged capabilities and features that are not available commercially". Between 2020 and March 2024,

2380-414: 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

2448-461: The company. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1 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

2516-522: 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

2584-483: The context of military communication satellites, Col. Eric Felt, director of space architecture at the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said that there are plans to acquire at least 100 Starshield-branded satellites for this purpose by 2029. He said that while the military is an active user of SpaceX's commercial Starlink service, they also want to take advantage of

2652-417: 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 ,

2720-418: The globe. Starshield also plans to be more resilient to attack from other powers. Starshield's imaging capabilities are designed to have superior resolution over most existing U.S. government spying systems. Northrop Grumman was selected to partner with SpaceX, with insiders noting that "it is in the government's interest to not be totally invested in one company run by one person". As early as 2020, SpaceX

2788-454: The globe. These began operations from May 2024, starting with NROL-146. These satellites are made in cooperation with Northrop Grumman . The Starshield name was publicly announced December 2022, however in 2021, Starshield had already entered a $ 1.8 billion classified contract with the U.S. government, revealed in 2023. In the documents of the contract, SpaceX says that funds from the contract were expected to become an important part of

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2856-794: 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

2924-589: 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 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,

2992-469: 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

3060-552: The late 2010s, SpaceX had become the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence rivaling that of 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

3128-412: 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

3196-518: 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

3264-457: 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

3332-555: 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

3400-487: The revenue mix of the company after 2021. Reuters revealed in 2024 that this contract was between the National Reconnaissance Office and SpaceX, and for a spy satellite network consisting of hundreds of satellites functioning as a swarm. The satellites will have imaging capabilities, and the satellite network will enable the US government to have continuous surveillance of nearly anywhere around

3468-553: 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,

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3536-474: 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 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

3604-415: 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

3672-404: 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 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

3740-473: 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 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

3808-401: 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

3876-475: 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

3944-584: Was announced in September 2023, involving communications-focused services for U.S. Space Systems Command. This contract with the US Space Force plans to provide customized satellite communications for the military. This is under the Space Force's new "Proliferated Low Earth Orbit" program for LEO satellites, where Space Force will allocate up to $ 900 million worth of contracts over the next 10 years. Although 16 vendors are competing for awards,

4012-471: Was announced that NASA had awarded a contract extension to SpaceX for five CRS additional missions ( CRS-16 to CRS-20 ). NASA has contracted for the CRS-18 mission from SpaceX and therefore determines the primary payload, date/time of launch, and orbital parameters for the Dragon space capsule . It carried the third International Docking Adapter (IDA-3). The following is a breakdown of cargo bound for

4080-598: Was approximately $ 90 million to $ 100 million . The Falcon rocket series 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

4148-464: 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

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4216-417: Was designing, building, and launching customized satellites based on variants of the Starlink satellite bus for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In October 2020, SDA awarded SpaceX an initial $ 150 million dual-use contract to develop 4 satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles. The first batch of satellites were originally scheduled to launch September 2022 to form part of

4284-486: 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

4352-525: Was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1 , 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

4420-602: Was not awarded a contract for the larger Tranche 1, with awards going to York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin Space, and Northrop Grumman Space Systems. As Starlink was being relied on in the Russo-Ukrainian war , expert on battlefield communications Thomas Wellington argued that Starlink signals, because they use narrow focused beams, are less vulnerable to interference and jamming by the enemy in wartime than satellites flying in higher orbits. Another Starshield contract

4488-548: 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

4556-512: 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. SpaceX Starshield While SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell has indicated that there

4624-403: 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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