“Ancient times” replies Elon Musk on a tweet shared by Tesla Owners Silicon Valley about Spacex

Today, a Twitter page called “Tesla Owners Silicon Valley” shared a piece of news back from 2003 about Spacex and writes,” Story about SpaceX from 2003. Can’t believe how far they’ve come,” to which Elon Musk replied “ancient times.”

Ancient times

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2022

SpaceX truly has come very far from where and how it started. Let’s see the history of SpaceX

How did SpaceX start and where has it reached now?

2001-2002

Returning to the beginning Elon Musk is passionate about colonizing space, and he set out to establish a multi-planetary species by bringing people to Mars. Musk didn’t have enough money until 2001 to start a commercial space company. After selling Paypal to eBay, he received roughly $200 million. Even though that amount of money is huge, it ends up being a very little budget when it comes to sending rockets into space.

Initially, there wasn’t much public interest in the concept of visiting Mars, but this changed after Elon Musk launched his “Mars Oasis” project and turned the possibility into a reality.

Musk chose to construct his rocket since the $65 million Mars-bound rocket he needed was completely out of his budget. In 2002, SpaceX was founded on the principle of producing rockets internally.
The Mars-bound rocket that Musk needed cost $65 million which was way over budget and so he decided to build one himself. The decision to manufacture rockets internally is what sparked the establishment of SpaceX in 2002. The company’s first rocket, called Falcon 1, was modeled on the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. There were initially only three people working on the rocket launch, but this changed when they received funding from the US Naval Research Laboratory in exchange for using the rocket to launch a military satellite.
The first rocket produced by SpaceX was called Falcon 1 and was named after the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. Initially, just three people were working on the rocket launch. However, when they received funding from the US Naval Research Laboratory in exchange for using the rocket to launch a military satellite, this situation changed.

Falcon 1 had a little bit of a failure in the interim since it wasn’t launched fully until 2008. Fortunately, a new partner emerged in the form of the U.S. Air Force Academy. According to reports, they only contributed $7 million to the Falcon Sat 2 launch, which allowed their students to experiment with a number of ideas in orbit. As a result, SpaceX had a little deficit and some debt totaling roughly $100 million. In addition, a Falcon 1 launch attempt that year was unsuccessful, with the rocket crashing into the water.

2006-2009

To create the Falcon 9 and Dragon Capsule, NASA awarded the business $278 million, saving the company. They needed to successfully launch Falcon 1 to demonstrate that their procedures were scalable before moving on to these bigger missions. In spite of the rocket’s failure to enter orbit, they attempted to launch again in 2007, and they viewed this as a success because they were able to collect a significant quantity of data throughout the rocket’s about 4-minute ascent through the atmosphere.

NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Celestis showed increased interest after learning that SpaceX was approaching close to orbit (the latter is a company that sends ashes into space). SpaceX was in trouble after yet another Falcon 1 launch failure. The business would have to shut down if the next launch of the rocket was unsuccessful. At the time, Elon Musk put on a very confident façade, but he later admitted that it was the worst year of his life. His automaker, Tesla, was struggling as well.

The only part of the Falcon 1 launch that needed to be altered was the separation time delay, hence the subsequent launch occurred just a few weeks later on September 28, 2008. The mission, fortunately, was a success.

2009-2012

The Falcon 9 launch was the next priority. Compared to the Falcon 1, it was a significantly larger rocket and could support a much heavier payload. To ensure that the Falcon 9 launch did not have the same outcome as the initial Falcon 1 flight, they transferred their operations to a U.S. military facility and had to pass a number of inspections. They launched the Falcon 9 successfully on their maiden attempt in May 2010. The only issue was that the Dragon Capsule, which was launched into orbit by the Falcon 9, spun after entering orbit for an unforeseen cause. Later, this was changed.

The actual success behind this is how cost-effectively SpaceX was able to complete this mission. NASA estimated the cost of doing the same thing, and SpaceX was able to do it for five times less.
The Dragon Capsule performed manoeuvres to show off its capabilities. The Dragon Capsule was eventually retrieved in December using a second Falcon 9. It was flawless.

2012-2015

The next venture for SpaceX was Dragon 2. In essence, it involved altering the Dragon Capsule such that it could transport seven men to the International Space Station. Another one of their missions was Red Dragon, which was designed to test their capacity to land on Mars without carrying humans just yet. The rocket engines underwent significant upgrades thanks to SpaceX. Their rocket engines may look simple today, but they represented a significant breakthrough at the time. They also developed a unique fuel that was based on methane, which they later shared with the general public.

Grasshopper, which we briefly discussed earlier, was not intended to seek out space. It was only intended to perform a vertical landing while literally hopping at great heights. It accomplished a hover slam landing on March 7, 2013. Then, a month later, it made a vertical landing after reaching a height of 250 metres (with strong wind). It was repeatedly tested, and each time it succeeded in landing vertically as well as hovering sideways in the air.
The improvement to Grasshopper, Dragonfly, was then made to land on a sea barge. The rocket’s initial attempt ended in failure, but given the barge’s small size as a landing target, it was considered a success. Two more Dragonfly rockets were unsuccessful.

The most recent was due to a single minute component constructed with the incorrect material (which led to it exploding in mid-air). On November 23rd, 2015, Blue Origin used a vertical landing to successfully return from space.

2015-2020

SpaceX’s next major project was Starship. Elon Musk’s dreams were finally beginning to materialize. Mars was the destination of the Starship! Starship has a stunning design and is made of stainless steel (which is also a very practical metal to use). The Mars landing is one of this project’s most difficult elements. It is meant to land like a skydiver to slow down its speed.

When you are as far from Earth as Mars, refueling is a concern. Two rocket launches are expected to address the issue. Both will receive gasoline from the first. In addition to Mars, Elon Musk raised the possibility of visiting Saturn. Because Musk’s timeframes are so ambitious, we cannot say with certainty when we will see Starship on Mars. But given how well SpaceX has been at fast reusing their rockets, that is certainly possible. Let’s wait and see what happens!

2020-present

The first crewed Dragon trip to the International Space Station took place on May 30, 2020. This made headlines all around the world because it was the first time a commercial company launched astronauts to the ISS. The Super Heavy Starship, which can lift 100,000 kg into low-Earth orbit, has also been unveiled as a new addition to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. On board would be the aforementioned Starship, which has since been altered to act as a means of transit between Earth, Mars, and the Moon. The major goal is to establish bases on the Moon and Mars.

In 2023, a few artists and a businessman from Japan named Maezawa Yusaku are expected to travel. Elon Musk even plans to transport people to Mars to live by 2025. Most recently, yesterday, SpaceX launched an additional 60 Starlink satellites into space. This effort aims to provide everyone with stable, affordable internet. For this advantage, the capacity of astronomers to observe the night sky must be surrendered.

It surely wasn’t an easy journey for Elon Musk with his newly launched company SpaceX. But, hard work, patience, effectiveness, and efficiency are what made Musk the man he is now. From having no money to being the richest person in the world, this is what being successful sounds like.