What is SpaceX?

In 2001, a Silicon Valley millionaire had a dream to conquer Mars. Now 16 years later his dream is realizing. Elon Musk found success with PayPal which was bought with a staggering US$1.5 billion in stock by eBay in 2002, of which Musk received US$165 million as part of his 11.7% share in PayPal. With US$100 million of his early fortune, he cofounded Space Exploration Technologies, now popularly known as SpaceX in May, 2002.

Elon Musk describes his life’s mission to make humans a “multi planetary species”. While there is at least a decade before humans reach Mars, the accomplishments of SpaceX in its 14 years of existence has been commendable. Arguably, they have only managed to bring something unique to Space technology in the last couple years. They became extremely popular when they announced plans to launch reusable rockets which could land instead of exploding into nothingness. What’s so special about this rocket producing company? Firstly it’s Elon Musk. There’s always something special going on when he is around. Now, for the real stuff: They want to colonise Mars. They want to reduce costs of their operations by commercialising their projects which means doing missions for Space Agencies like NASA. They want to land rockets once they’ve completed their mission. SpaceX is like a private contractor NASA actively supports SpaceX for its missions. The American agencies have maintained good relations since SpaceX inception as both have a common goal in mind: space exploration. However, SpaceX is a private company unlike NASA. It has his own set of investors, board of directors and employees like a regular private company with Elon Musk as the Commander in Chief. They have a constant concern to stay profitable to keep the investors happy, while keeping working towards their ultimate goal to reach Mars. In January of last year they managed to secure a billion dollar funding from Google and Fidelity which now co-own 10% of the company. SpaceX signed a contract to launch a communications satellite for HISPASAT and a Saudi Arabian Arabsat 6A communications satellite using its Falcon rockets. Their private contracts are what help with the operating costs. They became the first privately owned space company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the International Space Station on 25th May 2012.

Reusable Rockets

This is probably their most unique and popular accomplishment. They went viral on the Internet when the managed to land a rocket back on land after deploying 11 satellites in the orbit on 22nd December 2015.

“I do think it's a revolutionary moment. No one has ever brought an orbital class booster back intact," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters in a teleconference after the launch and landing success. "We achieved recovery of the rocket in a mission that also deployed 11 satellites. This is a fundamental step change compared to any other rocket that's ever flown." This was a major victory for them but it didn’t come easy. Their previous two attempts at landing the rocket failed but as they say third time’s the charm. After this they managed to land another rocket, this time in the middle of an ocean on 8th April 2016. In total there have been 3 unsuccessful landing which were major setbacks for obvious reasons. Running space operations means that the stakes are always high.

Their Ultimate Goal

On 27th September 2016, Elon Musk unveiled SpaceX’ plan to start a 1 million person colony on Mars. He truly believes that colonising Mars is possible in the near future even though skeptics disagree. It seems like a bold claim but let’s all board Elon’s hype train for now. "The plan he is proposing on the timescale he is proposing seem to me to on the edge of fantasy," space policy expert John Logsdon comments. He noted that Musk is known for setting ambitious goals on tight time lines, saying, "That's just Elon. That's his style." The amount of funding required to make such a mission possible would be impossible for SpaceX to achieve alone. NASA, their all time supporter, could be a major partner in such a mission. Technically SpaceX is ready for a manned Mars mission according to Logsdon. What holds them back is probably rocket science so I won’t try explaining that in detail. One of the ideas Musk announced during his Mars announcement was using methane/oxygen propellent as rocket fuel which could be found on Mars.

As difficult as it may be to make humans ‘multi planetary’, if there’s one person who can do this, it would be Elon Musk.