page_title: SpaceX
section_title: Goals
hierarchical_section_title: SpaceX / History / Goals
caption_attribution_description: English: Falcon Heavy on pad LC-39A
context_page_description: Space Exploration Technologies Corp., trading as SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles, the Starlink satellite constellation, the Dragon cargo spacecraft, and flown humans to the International Space Station on the Crew Dragon Demo-2.
  SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit, the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft, the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, the first propulsive landing for an orbital rocket, the first reuse of an orbital rocket, the first private company to launch an object into orbit around the Sun, and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station.
context_section_description: Musk has stated that one of his goals is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten. CEO Elon Musk said: "I believe $500 per pound ($1100/kg) or less is very achievable". Musk has also stated that he wishes to make space travel available for "almost anyone."
  A major goal of SpaceX has been to develop a rapidly reusable launch system. As of March 2013, the publicly announced aspects of this technology development effort include an active test campaign of the low-altitude, low-velocity Grasshopper flight test vehicle, and a high-altitude, high-speed Falcon 9 post-mission booster return test campaign. In 2015, SpaceX successfully landed the first orbital rocket stage on December 21.
  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, utilizing 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 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.
  At the 2016 International Astronautical Congress, Musk announced his plans to build large spaceships to reach Mars. Using the Starship, Musk planned to send at least two uncrewed cargo ships to Mars in 2022. The first missions would be used to seek out sources of water and build a propellant plant. Musk also planned to fly four additional ships to Mars in 2024 including the first people. From there, additional missions would work to establish a Mars colony. These goals are however facing delays.
  Musk's advocacy for the long-term settlement of Mars goes far beyond what SpaceX projects to build; successful colonization of Mars would ultimately involve many more economic actors—whether individuals, companies, or governments—to facilitate the growth of the human presence on Mars over many decades.
caption: Falcon Heavy Rocket on Launch Pad 39A in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
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