What
Designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft.
Disrupting
Government-led space transportation model, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
Source: SpaceX
Headquarters: Hawthorne, Calif.
CEO: Elon Musk
Year Founded: 2002
Number of Employees: 3,000
Funding: N/A
Key Investors: Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Valor Equity Partners (minority investors)
Vital Stats
- In 2012 became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and return it safely
- Successfully docked spacecraft at International Space Station in 2012
- Musk hopes to establish an 80,000-person human colony on Mars at a projected cost of $36 billion to a public-private partnership.
- Believes it can bring the cost of moving a person to Mars down to half a million dollars
- Previous NASA estimates put cost of manned mission to Mars at $500 billion
On Disruption
When legacy firms fail to innovate, start-ups jump into the market and thrive at the establishment’s expense. That’s disruption.
Gwynne Shotwell
SpaceX President
