In 2002, a 31-year-old South African immigrant to the US founded a company that is likely to transform the course of human development. SpaceX would, within two decades, become the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (in 2012), achieve the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing of an orbital rocket (in 2015), be the first to reuse an orbital rocket (in 2017) and become the first private company to send astronauts to the ISS (in 2020). SpaceX also launched, by January 2020, the largest satellite constellation – Starlink – to provide commercial internet services. (For anyone feeling dejected about their own achievements in their thirties, just remember: SpaceX is not even Elon Musk’s most valuable company. Only a year after he founded SpaceX with the aim to make humans an interplanetary species, he founded Tesla, today the world’s largest electric car company.)
The future of space
The future of space
The future of space
In 2002, a 31-year-old South African immigrant to the US founded a company that is likely to transform the course of human development. SpaceX would, within two decades, become the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (in 2012), achieve the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing of an orbital rocket (in 2015), be the first to reuse an orbital rocket (in 2017) and become the first private company to send astronauts to the ISS (in 2020). SpaceX also launched, by January 2020, the largest satellite constellation – Starlink – to provide commercial internet services. (For anyone feeling dejected about their own achievements in their thirties, just remember: SpaceX is not even Elon Musk’s most valuable company. Only a year after he founded SpaceX with the aim to make humans an interplanetary species, he founded Tesla, today the world’s largest electric car company.)