SpaceX has gone from a company nobody expected to survive its first three launches to the operator of the most-used rocket in history. Here are the dates that actually mattered.
Last updated: 26 September 2026.
2002 ā Founded
SpaceX was founded in March 2002 with the stated goal of reducing the cost of space transportation and eventually enabling human settlement of Mars. Musk put roughly $100 million of his own money in to get it started.
2008 ā Falcon 1 reaches orbit
After three consecutive failures, the fourth Falcon 1 flight succeeded on 28 September 2008. It made Falcon 1 the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit.
The company was close to running out of money at this point. A fourth failure would very likely have ended it.
2010 ā Dragon flies and comes home
In December 2010, SpaceX launched the Dragon capsule into orbit and recovered it intact ā the first time a privately developed spacecraft had been launched to orbit and safely returned to Earth.
2012 ā First operational cargo run to the ISS
Dragon flew its first contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station in October 2012, beginning the cargo service that still runs today.
2015 ā The first booster landing
On 21 December 2015, a Falcon 9 first stage flew back to Cape Canaveral and landed upright. It was the first controlled landing of an orbital-class rocket booster, and the beginning of the reuse programme that changed the economics of launch.
Landing on a droneship at sea followed in April 2016, which is what made routine recovery possible for higher-energy missions.
2018 ā Falcon Heavy's first flight
Falcon Heavy flew for the first time on 6 February 2018, carrying Musk's own Tesla Roadster and a mannequin as a test payload. At the time it was the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
It no longer holds that title. NASA's Space Launch System first flew in November 2022, and Starship is more powerful still.
2020 ā Crew Dragon carries astronauts
On 30 May 2020, Crew Dragon carried NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS. It was the first crewed launch from American soil since the Space Shuttle retired in 2011, and the first ever by a commercial company.
2021 ā The first all-civilian crew
Inspiration4 launched in September 2021 with four private citizens aboard and no professional astronauts ā the first all-private crewed mission to Earth orbit.
2023 ā Starship's first integrated flight
The full Starship and Super Heavy stack flew together for the first time on 20 April 2023. It cleared the pad, lost control several minutes in, and was destroyed ā which was within the range of outcomes SpaceX had publicly prepared for.
2023 was also the year the company's launch rate took off: 98 orbital missions in a single year, a record at the time, and one it beat the following year.
2024 ā The catch
Three things happened in 2024 that are worth separating out.
June: on Starship's fourth flight, both the booster and the ship made controlled splashdowns in their target zones ā the first time the full flight profile worked end to end.
September: Polaris Dawn flew a private crew higher than any Dragon had gone and conducted the first commercial spacewalk, testing a new SpaceX-developed EVA suit.
13 October: the Super Heavy booster returned to the launch site and was caught in mid-air by the two mechanical arms on the launch tower ā the "chopsticks". It worked on the first attempt. Catching a booster rather than landing it on legs is what makes rapid reuse of something that size plausible at all.
The next flight, in November, tested improved heat shielding on the ship. That time the catch was called off and the booster was steered to a splashdown offshore instead, a reminder of how many things have to go right for it to work.
2025ā2026 ā Starship iterating
Starship test flights continued through 2025 and into 2026, working through reusability, orbital operations, payload deployment and thermal protection. The vehicle was progressively redesigned between flights rather than frozen, which is why the flight numbers matter less than the specific capability each one was testing.
Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, and a version of it is under contract to NASA as a crewed lunar lander for the Artemis programme.
Why the reuse story is the real story
The headline moments are the crewed launches and the Mars ambitions, but the thing that actually changed the industry was booster recovery.
Before 2015, every orbital rocket was thrown away after one flight. Recovering and reflying first stages ā hundreds of times over, by now ā is what took the cost per kilogram to orbit down far enough to make things like a several-thousand-satellite internet constellation financially conceivable.
Everything else follows from a rocket that comes back.
Want to see one for yourself? Our guide to where to watch a SpaceX launch covers the best viewing spots in Florida, California and Texas, and how to watch live from the UK.
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