SpaceX began in 2002 in El Segundo, California. Its founder, Elon Musk, had failed to buy a Russian rocket cheaply enough to launch a greenhouse experiment on Mars and concluded he would need to build his own.
Falcon 1
The first three launches of the small Falcon 1 rocket failed. The fourth, in 2008, reached orbit — the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to do so.
The reusable era
With Falcon 9, SpaceX became the first company to land and re-fly an orbital-class booster. Falcon Heavy extended the same architecture to heavy payloads.
Starlink and Starship
Starlink turned the same launch cadence into a business, funding the development of Starship — the vehicle intended to carry humans to Mars.