SpaceX: Past, Present, and Future!

Past:

- SpaceX, the American aerospace company, founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, in the hopes of revolutionizing the aerospace industry and making affordable spaceflight a reality

 -In March 2006, the company entered the arena with the Falcon 1 rocket, after several delays, they attempted. The rocket exploded a minute into the trip. It took three more tries before a Falcon 1 rocket delivered a satellite into orbit in 2008, a first for a privately-funded rocket.

- SpaceX scored its first big headline in 2010 for creating a reusable rocket — one that could be flown, landed, and then flown again. That launch vehicle, the Falcon 9, made its first flight, and these rockets have now flawlessly flown 85 out of 87 missions, landing more than 50 times.

-Dragon made history on May 25, 2012, when it became the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS, to which it successfully delivered cargo. The Dragon was designed with crew compatibility in mind, which means the ship has already proven its basic space-worthiness, though it has a good way to go before its life support systems are similarly proven.

Present:

- SpaceX made history on Saturday, May 30, 2020, when its Crew Dragon capsule safely reached space carrying two NASA astronauts. It was the first time a private company put a human into orbit. On Sunday, May 31, 2020, Crew Dragon went on to successfully dock with the International Space Station (ISS), which the astronauts are now safely aboard.

- After successfully docking with the ISS, the crew are now aboard the orbiting research laboratory. However, it’s not clear exactly when the two astronauts, Behnken and Hurley will return to Earth.

Future:

- The future according to Elon Musk is a not-yet built futuristic transport system, nicknamed BFR, which would someday carry passengers across the globe. This will be in combination with the Hyperloop technology along with Space X’s plan to use its latest rocket program to create a transportation system to get anywhere on earth in less than an hour. Long-distance trips from Bangkok to Dubai, or from Honolulu to Tokyo, for example, would take about 30 minutes and cost about as much as an economy airline ticket.

- SpaceX has already been in talks with space tourism companies about bringing tourists to orbit, too. Each ship is designed to hold four NASA astronauts or seven tourists, so humanity’s presence in space should increase in the years ahead.

- All said and done, the biggest, dreamiest target for SpaceX has always been to be able to send people to Mars