SpaceTRC / Space Age / SpaceX
From boosters that fly home to a Mars ambition.
SpaceX was founded in 2002 by a small team. Today it performs most of the world’s orbital launches, operates an internet network of thousands of satellites and is developing the largest rocket ever built. This file explains its technology step by step, with data.
- Founded
- 2002Hawthorne, California
- Falcon 9 launches
- 701Updated automatically
- Falcon booster landings
- 675+As of 30 October 2026
- Most flights by one booster
- 37B1067 (2026)
- Launches this year
- 124All SpaceX rockets, automatic
01 / Timeline
20 milestones in 24 years
Tap a tag to show only rockets, Dragon, Starship, Starlink or company events.
- SpaceX founded
Elon Musk founded the company to cut launch costs and, eventually, make settling Mars possible.
- Falcon 1’s first attempt fails
The first three attempts failed. The company could barely afford a fourth.
- Falcon 1 reaches orbit
The first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit.
- NASA commercial cargo contract
A 1.6-billion-dollar ISS resupply contract secured the company’s future.
- Falcon 9 debut
The nine-engine rocket is today the most-flown orbital launcher in the world.
- Dragon returns from orbit
SpaceX became the first private company to recover a spacecraft from orbit.
- Dragon berths at the ISS
The first commercial vehicle to reach the space station.
- First vertical landing
A Falcon 9 first stage returned to the landing zone at Cape Canaveral after the ORBCOMM-2 mission.
- First landing at sea
A booster touched down on the autonomous drone ship in the Atlantic.
- First reflight of a booster
A previously flown first stage launched again and landed again.
- Falcon Heavy
The three-core heavy rocket sent a Tesla Roadster into solar orbit on its first flight.
- First 60 Starlink satellites
The mass-production era of the satellite internet network began.
- Crew Dragon Demo-2
Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley became the first NASA astronauts flown to orbit by a private company.
- Inspiration4
The first orbital crew without a professional astronaut spent three days in space.
- Starship’s first flight
Stage separation did not occur, but the vehicle cleared the pad and returned valuable data.
- Polaris Dawn: first commercial spacewalk
The crew reached about 1,400 km, the highest humans had flown since Apollo.
- Super Heavy caught by the tower
The giant booster was caught in mid-air by the launch tower’s mechanical arms.
- Fram2 flies a polar orbit
Humans flew over both poles for the first time.
- xAI acquisition and IPO
SpaceX acquired the AI company xAI in February and began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on 12 June.
- Starship in orbit
Flight 14 reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites.
- 700th Falcon 9 launch
Starlink 15-18 lifted off from Vandenberg. Booster B1093 flew its 18th mission.
02 / Fleet
Vehicles and engines, from Falcon to Starship
Falcon 9 Block 5
A two-stage rocket with a reusable first stage. The workhorse for Starlink, cargo, crew and commercial satellites.
- Height
- 70 m
- Diameter
- 3.7 m
- Engines
- 9 Merlin + 1 Merlin Vacuum
- LEO payload
- 22.8 t (expendable)
- First flight
- 2010
Falcon Heavy
Three Falcon 9 cores strapped together. The side boosters often land back on shore side by side.
- Height
- 70 m
- Width
- 12.2 m
- Engines
- 27 Merlin
- LEO payload
- 63.8 t (expendable)
- First flight
- 2018
Dragon (Cargo and Crew)
A capsule that carries cargo and astronauts to the ISS and splashes down under parachutes. Private missions can fly a glass “cupola”.
- Crew
- 4 (operational)
- Diameter
- 3.7 m
- Propulsion
- SuperDraco + Draco
- First crewed flight
- 2020
Starship / Super Heavy
The largest rocket ever built, designed so that both stages return. Selected as a lunar lander for NASA’s return to the Moon.
- Height (V3)
- ≈124 m
- Diameter
- 9 m
- Engines
- 33 + 6 Raptor
- Propellant
- Liquid methane + liquid oxygen
- First flight
- 2023
Merlin: burns kerosene (RP-1) and liquid oxygen in a gas-generator cycle. Every Falcon stage uses this engine family.
Raptor: burns methane and oxygen in a “full-flow staged combustion” cycle, one of the most efficient and hardest engine types to build. One reason for methane: it can be produced on Mars from carbon dioxide and ice.
03 / Reuse
How does a Falcon 9 first stage land?
Tap a step or a number in the drawing. The example shows a typical mission returning to a drone ship at sea.
Your turn: try landing the booster on the drone ship yourself. Open the Falcon 9 landing simulator →
Videos are embedded from SpaceX’s official YouTube channel and load only when you tap them.
04 / Starship
Starship flight log: 14 test flights
SpaceX develops Starship by flying, finding faults, fixing them and flying again, so failures are part of the plan. Outcomes follow Wikipedia’s classification.
| # | Date | Block | Outcome | Super Heavy | Starship | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20 Apr 2023 | 1 | Failure | Lost | Lost | No stage separation; vehicle tumbled |
| 2 | 18 Nov 2023 | 1 | Failure | Lost | Lost | First successful hot staging |
| 3 | 14 Mar 2024 | 1 | Success | Lost | Lost on re-entry | Reached space; propellant-transfer demo |
| 4 | 6 Jun 2024 | 1 | Success | Controlled splashdown | Controlled splashdown | Both stages survived re-entry |
| 5 | 13 Oct 2024 | 1 | Success | Caught by tower | Controlled splashdown | First booster catch |
| 6 | 19 Nov 2024 | 1 | Success | Splashdown | Controlled splashdown | Catch aborted; first “payload” a toy banana |
| 7 | 16 Jan 2025 | 2 | Failure | Caught by tower | Lost | First Block 2; propellant leak |
| 8 | 6 Mar 2025 | 2 | Failure | Caught by tower | Lost | Engines shut down; loss of control |
| 9 | 27 May 2025 | 2 | Failure | Lost | Lost | First reflown booster |
| 10 | 26 Aug 2025 | 2 | Success | Controlled splashdown | Landed within 3 m of target | Deployed 8 Starlink simulators |
| 11 | 13 Oct 2025 | 2 | Success | Controlled splashdown | Controlled splashdown | Last Block 2 flight |
| 12 | 22 May 2026 | 3 | Success | Lost | Controlled splashdown | Debut of V3 and the new pad |
| 13 | 24 Jul 2026 | 3 | Success | Lost | Controlled splashdown | First Starlink V3 deployment test |
| 14 | 28 Sep 2026 | 3 | Success | Controlled splashdown | Pacific splashdown | First orbital flight, 26 Starlink V3 |
| 15 | Nov 2026 (plan) | 3 | Planned | Tower catch goal | Possible ship catch attempt | Booster 22 and Ship 42 |
Current as of 1 November 2026. SpaceX has not announced an official date for Flight 15.
What happened on Flight 14? Starship lifted off from Starbase on 28 September 2026. One of its three main engines shut down early during ascent, yet the vehicle still entered an orbit at about 270 km and released 26 Starlink V3 satellites one by one over roughly 30 minutes. Three of them carried cameras to image Starship’s heat shield. The planned 10-hour mission was cut to about three hours because of the engine issue.
05 / Starlink
Starlink: more than 13,000 satellites
Starlink is an internet network of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit, in shells between about 340 and 570 km. Being roughly 60 times closer than geostationary satellites, it offers far lower latency. The chart shows satellites launched by generation as of 23 October 2026.
Source: Wikipedia, “List of Starlink and Starshield launches”, 23 October 2026. Includes deorbited and failed satellites, so the active count is lower.
V3 satellites
According to SpaceX, each V3 satellite has about 10 times the downlink and 22 times the uplink capacity of V2. They are too large for Falcon 9 and can only fly on Starship.
One Starship = 20 Falcon 9s
A fully loaded Starship is meant to carry 60 V3 satellites, roughly the network capacity of 20 Falcon 9 launches.
Satellite to phone
New satellites are designed to connect directly to ordinary mobile phones without a special antenna.
For a detailed Starlink and Amazon Leo comparison and an interactive orbit calculator, see Mega-constellations.
06 / Dragon
Dragon and human spaceflight
Crew Dragon has carried NASA astronauts to the ISS since 2020. Crew-13, launched on 1 October 2026, is the thirteenth regular rotation mission. The same vehicle flies private missions too.
| Mission | Date | Type | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demo-2 | May 2020 | NASA test | First crewed orbital flight of a private vehicle |
| Inspiration4 | Sep 2021 | Private | First all-civilian orbital crew |
| Ax-1 … Ax-4 | 2022–2025 | Private, ISS | Axiom Space private astronaut missions |
| Ax-3 | Jan 2024 | Private, ISS | Alper Gezeravcı, first Turkish astronaut |
| Polaris Dawn | Sep 2024 | Private | First commercial spacewalk, about 1,400 km altitude |
| Fram2 | Apr 2025 | Private | First crewed polar orbit |
| Crew-13 | Oct 2026 | NASA rotation | Six-month ISS mission |
07 / Moon and Mars
Lunar lander and the Mars goal
Starship HLS
NASA selected a Starship variant to carry astronauts from lunar orbit to the surface. That requires proving ship-to-ship propellant transfer in orbit. How many tanker flights one landing needs is not settled; estimates range from about ten to twenty.
Mars
Musk has repeatedly announced plans to send uncrewed Starships to Mars, and those dates have slipped several times. Launch windows to Mars open about every 26 months.
08 / Debates
Criticism and open questions
Sky and astronomy
Thousands of bright satellites streak telescope images and can affect radio observations. SpaceX has tried darker coatings and sunshades; astronomers say the problem is not fully solved.
Space traffic and debris
The number of satellites is growing fast, raising collision risk and the number of avoidance manoeuvres. Starlink satellites are designed to burn up at end of life.
Atmosphere and environment
Researchers are studying how metal oxides from re-entering satellites affect the upper atmosphere. Habitats around Starbase are monitored by regulators and conservation groups.
Market concentration
That most US orbital launches depend on one company is seen by agencies and competitors as a strategic risk.