"How SpaceX Was Founded"
Examining closely the success story of SpaceX, one of the most entrenched aerospace companies of all time, shaping humanity's space adventure with reusable rockets. With Elon Musk's vision, we take a closer look at the space journey that began in 2002, involving various space missions, groundbreaking rockets, and the Mars mission that excites us all. Let's collectively delve into the space odyssey that started in 2002, akin to the storytelling style of Uğur Dündar, highlighting Elon Musk's SpaceX as the project with the highest company value in recent years.
The development of space technologies evolved based on the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and until the early 2010s, these technologies were predominantly managed by governments. However, the first organization to produce a reusable rocket in history was not a state but the private company SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk.
Elon Musk, who became wealthy after creating and selling the precursor to online payment services, X.com, initially entered the space industry as a mere passion project. However, his vision aligned with the common goals of humanity, and today, SpaceX stands as the only company capable of transporting humans to Mars.
Every long journey begins with a bold and significant first step: How was SpaceX founded? In the year 2002, Elon Musk took one of the most crucial steps of his life. Utilizing the proceeds from selling X.com, the precursor to PayPal, to eBay, Elon Musk invested in what would arguably become his most important project—SpaceX, established on May 6, 2002.
Elon Musk's motivation to establish a space company producing its own rockets stemmed from realizing that there was no better option to advance space transportation and journeys to the point where it becomes more affordable and easier. During those years, Musk's goals and dreams were met with widespread apprehension, and everyone viewed this project as a significant risk, including Musk himself at times.
Reflecting on the early years of the company's establishment, Musk mentioned that during that period, he did not even want those closest to him to invest in his company. He expressed a preference for using his own money, even if there was a risk of losing it in this daring project. Today, years later, Elon Musk, through the risks he took and the significant strides he made, owns one of the world's largest and most influential companies, shaping the future of space.
When Elon Musk founded SpaceX, his greatest dream, as many of us are familiar with, was to transport humanity to Mars and colonize the Red Planet. Even today, we can say that Elon Musk and his company SpaceX are still driven significantly by this dream. In fact, SpaceX defines this goal as the ambition to 'make humanity a multi-planetary species.' However, of course, this is not the sole objective of SpaceX.
Over the years, SpaceX has also formulated goals such as making space transportation more affordable, thereby taking more frequent actions, producing more powerful rockets to transport larger payloads to space at lower costs, and spreading high-speed, inexpensive internet worldwide through Starlink.
Many of these objectives have materialized through years of dedicated efforts. SpaceX has achieved significant successes by turning every obstacle in front of its primary goal, the Mars mission, into a target.
Following its establishment, SpaceX commenced efforts to develop its own rockets, and after four years, the first launch took place in March 2006. On March 26, during this launch, Falcon 1 experienced a failure moments after leaving the launch pad due to a rupture in the fuel lines, resulting in a fire.
One year later, on March 25, 2007, the second launch was attempted, but it also failed due to the rocket's inability to balance its rotation, leading to engine shutdown. After the third launch proved unsuccessful, a significant milestone in space transportation was achieved on September 28, 2008, when SpaceX conducted its first successful launch.
Falcon 1, in this launch after six years, reached orbit, becoming the first privately-funded, liquid-fueled rocket to achieve this feat. Following Falcon 1, on July 13, 2009, it completed its own mission by successfully conducting its first and only commercial mission on its fifth launch.
