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The Impossible Dream: SpaceX's Journey from Garage Startup to Orbital Pioneer
In the late summer of 2019, Elon Musk stood in the South Texas desert inspecting a gleaming stainless steel rocket prototype. This "steampunk contraption" called Starhopper represented the culmination of nearly two decades of work toward his ultimate goal: making humanity a multi-planetary species. What's remarkable is that SpaceX has become the company most likely to put humans on Mars-surpassing even NASA's capabilities. The book "Liftoff" by Eric Berger has become required reading in Silicon Valley and aerospace circles, with tech luminaries like Reid Hoffman calling it the definitive account of how a small team of brilliant engineers, working against impossible odds, created what is now the world's leading space company. The story of SpaceX's formative years reveals not just technological innovation but a revolution in how rockets are built, tested, and launched-a tale of perseverance through multiple catastrophic failures before finally achieving orbit.
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The Birth of a Rocket Company
When Elon Musk was driving on the Long Island Expressway with his friend Adeo Ressi in late 2000, he mentioned his interest in space. Checking NASA's website, Musk was shocked to discover no concrete plans for Mars missions. This revelation sparked "Mars Oasis"-a plan to send a small greenhouse to Mars to inspire public support for space exploration. After two failed attempts to purchase refurbished Russian ICBMs as launch vehicles, Musk realized he would need to build his own rocket.
The fundamental problem wasn't just NASA's funding but the entire launch industry's inefficiency. Even if Mars Oasis succeeded in doubling NASA's budget, it would likely only lead to more "flags-and-footprints" missions rather than sustainable space settlement. The solution was clear: dramatically reduce launch costs to enable greater space commerce and exploration.
In spring 2002, Musk gathered prominent aerospace engineers at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles, announcing his intention to start a rocket company. Many veterans laughed and advised him to "save your money kid," but Musk was undeterred. Of the five people offered founding positions, only two accepted: Tom Mueller as VP of propulsion and Chris Thompson for structures. On May 6, 2002, Space Exploration Technologies was officially founded, soon nicknamed "SpaceX."
The early SpaceX team worked in a cavernous facility with minimal organization. Everyone carried multiple responsibilities, from engineering to janitorial duties. Even Gwynne Shotwell, head of sales, found herself vacuuming conference rooms before important meetings. The team bonded through late-night Quake III Arena sessions with Musk "right there in the thick of it," though not everyone participated. These gaming breaks provided needed relief from the demanding 80-hour workweeks that made employees joke that "SpaceX is like dog years - you get like seven years in one."
Musk's management style combined humor, seriousness, and obsessive attention to detail, channeling "a preternatural force to move things forward." He personally interviewed every employee through the first 3,000 hires, looking for brilliant, hardworking people with no tolerance for "nonsense." Unlike traditional aerospace companies where mistakes could damage careers, Musk encouraged his team to "move fast, build things, and break things." When Musk asked the impossible, he didn't want to hear it couldn't be done-he wanted to hear "what would it take?"
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Engineering the Merlin Engine
Tom Mueller had high hopes for his forty-second birthday in March 2003. After joining SpaceX and designing the Merlin engine for the Falcon 1 rocket, his team successfully tested the thrust chamber assembly for the first time. They celebrated with an expensive bottle of Remy Martin cognac, only to be pulled over by Texas State Police on their drive home. The officer let them go after hearing their explanation about testing a rocket engine.
Growing up in the logging town of St. Maries, Idaho, Mueller developed an early interest in rockets, shooting them off in his grandfather's field. After graduating from the University of Idaho, he spent fifteen years at TRW developing rocket engines, including the powerful TR-106. On weekends, Mueller pursued amateur rocketry through the Reaction Research Society, collaborating with John Garvey on powerful engines. It was through this connection that Elon Musk first met Mueller in January 2002, immediately impressed by Mueller's expertise and cost-conscious approach to engine design.
When Jeff Bezos claimed engine development takes six to seven years, Musk scoffed, noting his team built their first rocket engine in under three years. For the Falcon 1, Musk wanted a lightweight, efficient engine producing about seventy thousand pounds of thrust. Though SpaceX didn't invent Merlin from scratch, they innovated significantly, particularly with the turbopump-the critical component that feeds propellant into the combustion chamber. When their redesigned turbopump proved problematic, Mueller's team had to master turbopump technology themselves, eventually transforming a 150-pound, 3,000-horsepower component into one that still weighed 150 pounds but produced 12,000 horsepower-a key to SpaceX's eventual market dominance.
Meanwhile, SpaceX abandoned plans to establish a test site at Mojave Air and Space Port due to thrust limitations, instead acquiring Beal Aerospace's defunct test site in McGregor, Texas. Though remote, the site offered minimal interference, no engine size restrictions, and Texas's business-friendly regulatory environment-perfect for SpaceX's explosive experimentation needs.
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The Kwajalein Gambit
On May 21, 2005, SpaceX engineers attempted their second static fire test of the Falcon 1 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base. After three years of development, the team was eager to ignite their rocket for the first time. Despite multiple countdown attempts, the onboard computer kept triggering shutdowns before ignition, and they eventually ran out of liquid oxygen when their supply truck got lost. The dejected team drowned their sorrows at a local bar, getting thoroughly intoxicated. When Musk called the next morning pushing for another immediate attempt, launch director Tim Buzza convinced him the exhausted team needed rest before trying again.
SpaceX and the Air Force maintained an uneasy relationship from the beginning. The military's rigid culture clashed with SpaceX's results-focused approach. After SpaceX's successful static fire test, the Air Force wouldn't grant launch permission until after their $1 billion NRO spy satellite launched on a Titan IV rocket, with no firm date provided. Unlike established companies with cost-plus contracts, SpaceX couldn't afford this indefinite delay. After investing $7 million in Vandenberg facilities, Musk made the difficult decision to relocate to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
When SpaceX activated its backup launch site in June 2005, they faced enormous logistical challenges. The company shipped thirty tons of equipment across the Pacific, with cargo taking a month to arrive by sea. Engineers like Hans Koenigsmann alternated between weeks on the island and time in Los Angeles, while others like Anne Chinnery essentially relocated to Kwaj. They built a concrete launchpad and hangar on Omelek Island in just four months, using scrappy solutions like plywood sheets to move the rocket from hangar to pad.
As launch preparations intensified, tensions mounted between the engineers on Omelek and management on Kwaj. When food, beer, and cigarettes failed to arrive during a particularly stressful period, the exhausted team went on strike. Tim Buzza quickly arranged for an Army helicopter to deliver chicken wings and cigarettes, ultimately having them dropped from the hovering aircraft when the pilot refused to land. The bedraggled engineers, resembling characters from "Lord of the Flies" with their tattered clothes and kerosene-stained shirts, swarmed the helipad. Ed Thomas, desperate for nicotine, immediately stuffed two cigarettes in his mouth, smoking them simultaneously.
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The First Flight: Spectacular Failure
When the launch range reopened in March 2006, SpaceX prepared for the Falcon 1's first flight. The team was filled with nervous excitement after their marathon sprint to this moment. In the control room, Musk paced while simultaneously discussing future Falcon 5 rocket materials with launch conductor Chris Thompson-even as Thompson tried to focus on the countdown. Despite Musk's interruptions, the countdown proceeded smoothly. When the clock hit zero and the rocket actually lifted off, the team was almost surprised after so many previous attempts.
Their euphoria lasted only seconds before Mueller noticed the Merlin engine catching fire. Thirty seconds after liftoff, the engine failed completely, and the rocket fell back toward Omelek Island. The team watched in horror as burning chunks fell into the ocean and the camera feed went dark. Four years of relentless work had ended in just one minute.
The team quickly determined a fuel leak near the top of the main engine had caused the fire. When Musk and senior engineers took a helicopter to survey the damage that afternoon, they found almost no visible debris-the rocket had crashed into the coral reef east of the island. That evening, Kimbal Musk cooked a bean-and-tomato stew to raise spirits while Elon processed the failure through his characteristic humor.
The next morning, over a hundred civilian workers from Kwajalein gathered at the dock to help collect rocket pieces. The payload, FalconSAT-2, had ironically crashed through the machine shop roof, landing near its original shipping container. The team laid out recovered pieces in the integration hangar, forming a skeleton of the failed vehicle. Despite the initial devastation, especially for perfectionists like Koenigsmann who took the failure particularly hard, Musk sent an uplifting memo noting that many iconic rockets had failed in their early launches, and promised that "come hell or high water, we are going to make this work."
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The Business of Selling Rockets
After joining SpaceX in 2002, Hans Koenigsmann maintained his friendship with former Microcosm colleague Gwynne Shotwell. When Koenigsmann took his new job at SpaceX, Shotwell took him to lunch at their favorite Belgian restaurant in El Segundo, Chef Hannes. After their meal, she dropped him off at SpaceX's building, where Koenigsmann invited her inside to meet Elon Musk. The brief meeting impressed Shotwell with Musk's aerospace knowledge. She mentioned the company should hire someone to sell the Falcon 1 rocket full-time, and later that day Musk created a VP of sales position and encouraged her to apply. Despite initial hesitation due to personal circumstances-she was divorcing with two young children-Shotwell eventually accepted, making what would become SpaceX's most important hire.
Shotwell joined SpaceX at a fortuitous time. Following the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon created the Falcon program (Force Application and Launch from CONtinental United States) to develop both hypersonic weapons and low-cost launchers. In 2003, DARPA solicited bids for a small rocket program, eventually awarding nine design study grants, with SpaceX emerging as a finalist. DARPA's support extended beyond funding, helping SpaceX move to Kwajalein and getting the Falcon 1 certified for launch.
From the beginning, Shotwell understood the complex relationship between the Air Force, NASA, and private industry, while Musk was still learning about federal customers. Her ongoing challenge was explaining SpaceX's iterative design philosophy to government customers accustomed to stable designs and slow-moving projects, patiently describing how making mistakes early would improve the final product.
Unlike traditional aerospace contractors who built rockets with government funding and oversight, SpaceX was developing the Falcon 1 on speculation, without guaranteed customers. "No one was paying us for design or development. They were paying us for flights," Shotwell explained. This approach gave SpaceX design freedom but created enormous financial pressure to sell launch contracts. The company also differentiated itself by building components in-house rather than relying on traditional aerospace suppliers, who "don't even get out of bed for $10 million."
SpaceX's battles extended beyond Kistler. Within its first three years, the company had sued three major rivals in the launch industry, challenged the Air Force over the United Launch Alliance merger, and protested a NASA contract. This aggressive stance made Shotwell's job difficult as she had to smooth relationships at conferences and with government officials. SpaceX pushed for fixed-price contracts and offered transparent pricing-$6 million for a Falcon 1 launch compared to $26-28 million for Orbital Sciences' comparable Pegasus rocket. This transparency "opened a curtain into a dark little corner" of what had been a cartel situation.
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Learning Through Failure
After investigating the Falcon 1 failure, SpaceX determined the true cause was a $5 aluminum B-nut that cracked due to inter-granular corrosion from sea salt spray. Tom Mueller called it "just bad freaking luck." The team had debated using aluminum versus stainless steel B-nuts before launch, ultimately choosing aluminum for its lighter weight. Though they applied anti-corrosion lubricant to parts of the rocket, they hadn't been thorough enough and underestimated Kwajalein's harsh environment. Most egregiously, they had left the rocket fully exposed on the launchpad for a month during the holiday break, subjecting it to constant salt spray from the nearby ocean.
Following the first failure, SpaceX underwent a dramatic maturation process. The company implemented traditional aerospace practices like meticulous component tracking, added comprehensive sensor systems, and made significant design improvements to what they called Falcon 1.1. "In terms of our maturity and discipline, we were a completely different company coming out for Flight Two," said Anne Chinnery.
Preparations for Flight Two proceeded more efficiently than the first launch, with SpaceX completing a successful static fire test on March 16, 2007. However, the final 48 hours proved challenging. During the first launch attempt on March 20, the flight computer automatically aborted at T-60 seconds due to a pressure reading indicating a leaky fuel valve. On the third attempt at 1:10 PM, the Falcon 1 finally lifted off. This time, the Merlin engine performed flawlessly, and the rocket soared past the boundary of space. However, minutes after first stage separation, the second stage began spiraling and eventually flamed out due to propellant slosh, falling short of orbit. Despite this, the team considered it a 95% success and celebrated their progress-they had reached space, even if not orbit.
Analysis confirmed that liquid oxygen slosh in the upper stage had induced a fatal oscillation-a problem they had identified earlier but ranked as only the eleventh highest risk. "Now," Musk says, "I ask for the eleven top risks. Always go to eleven." This became standard practice at SpaceX. The second failure highlighted the constant tension between rocket weight, payload capacity, and risk. While NASA had previously attempted a "Faster, Better, Cheaper" approach to missions (where conventional wisdom said you could only pick two), Musk was attempting all three-building high-performing, safe rockets at low cost.
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The Texas Testing Crucible
Following the second launch failure, the relationship between Tom Mueller and Elon Musk began to heal. Though Mueller had been excluded from the Zero-G flight Musk arranged after the first failure, their shared excitement when the Kestrel engine lit during Flight Two restored their bond. This reconciliation proved crucial as they faced their next challenge: developing an advanced Merlin engine that would nearly break the company.
SpaceX was entering an industry littered with failed rocket companies-from Amroc at Vandenberg to Rotary Rocket in Mojave. Most notably, billionaire Andy Beal had invested $200 million in Beal Aerospace before shutting down in 2000, citing NASA's favoritism toward traditional contractors despite having successfully tested a massive engine. Unlike Beal, who abandoned his efforts with an angry statement about government subsidies, Musk was determined to fight through legal challenges when necessary.
SpaceX quickly developed the McGregor test site in Texas, transforming the wild ranch land into a rocket testing facility. The location retained its rustic character, with engineers encountering rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, and biblical swarms of crickets that "pile up like snowdrifts." In one memorable incident, early engine tests pointed toward President George W. Bush's nearby ranch in Crawford, prompting concerned Secret Service agents to investigate when test firings shook the ranch windows.
The propulsion team lived grueling dual lives, working 12-14 hour shifts for ten days in Texas before flying back to California for brief breaks. For nearly two years, engineers like Buzza made painful departures from their families, with his young daughter associating team member Jeremy Hollman with her father's disappearance. Despite the hardships, the team achieved a major breakthrough in January 2005 with the first full Merlin test-firing that ran the required 160 seconds for an orbital launch.
Weeks after the inaugural Falcon 1 flight, aspiring engineer Zachary Dunn received a call from Tom Mueller about a summer internship. At the McGregor test site, Dunn worked through blistering Texas heat where temperatures consistently reached triple digits. The propulsion team of twenty engineers and technicians worked grueling hours, often from 8 AM until past midnight. Despite the scorching weather, Dunn found sublime moments working on rocket engines with classic rock blasting across the test stands, realizing he was living his dream.
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The Third Strike
By late spring 2008, more than a year after SpaceX's near miss on Flight Two, the company faced increasing financial pressure to achieve orbital success. Tom Mueller rewarded Zach Dunn's technical excellence by giving him responsibility for Flight Three's propulsion system despite being only months into his full-time employment.
As Flight Three approached, Musk looked beyond the present mission toward ambitious plans-an upgraded Falcon 1e rocket and the larger Falcon 9 with nine Merlin engines. Engineers even began preliminary work on linking three Falcon 9 cores to form the Falcon Heavy. Yet these grand visions hinged entirely on reaching orbit with the simpler Falcon 1. Another failure would send customers scurrying to competitors whose rockets, though substantially more expensive, at least didn't end up on the ocean floor.
"The crazy thing is that I originally budgeted for three attempts," Musk admitted. "And frankly, I thought that if we couldn't get this thing to orbit in three failures, we deserved to die. That was my going-in proposition."
On August 3, 2008, Dunn took his position in SpaceX's control room on Kwaj, monitoring the Merlin 1C engine while his mentor Hollman watched over his shoulder. Back in Hawthorne, confidence ran high with a festive atmosphere as staff and families gathered to watch. Despite countdown delays from helium loading issues and a thunderstorm that nearly closed their launch window, the Falcon 1 finally launched at 3:34 PM. Dunn watched in something like an out-of-body experience as the first stage performed perfectly. Then came the devastating moment-just after stage separation, the first stage unexpectedly collided with the second stage, sending it tumbling out of control.
The cause of the failure emerged through careful analysis. Steve Davis discovered the problem wasn't with the separation system but with Mueller's new regeneratively cooled Merlin 1C engine. Unlike its ablative predecessor, this engine ran kerosene through cooling channels in its chamber and nozzle. When the engine shut down, residual fuel in these channels combined with oxygen to produce a tiny but catastrophic thrust that pushed the spent first stage back into the second stage. The fix would be simple: add four seconds to the time between main engine cutoff and stage separation in the flight software. But the question looming over everyone was whether there would even be a Flight Four.
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The Final Chance: Eight Weeks to Orbit
In the aftermath of the third Falcon 1 failure, SpaceX faced its darkest hour. The day after the failure, Musk called a staff meeting where Steve Davis explained his findings on the relatively simple fix needed. When Musk's turn came to speak, he was in a precarious position-personally and professionally. His marriage had ended that summer, Tesla was struggling financially, and SpaceX had nothing but failures to show for years of work. "At that time I had to allocate a lot of capital to Tesla and SolarCity, so I was out of money," Musk explained. "We had three failures under our belt. So it's pretty hard to go raise money. The recession is starting to hit... I didn't even have a house. My ex-wife had the house. So it was a shitty summer."
Yet instead of assigning blame, Musk chose to rally his team. Looking around at the people he'd personally hired, he saw their dedication despite the mistakes. In this dark moment, he made a crucial decision-they would build and fly one final Falcon 1 rocket with the parts they had left in the factory. But they had precious little time to make it work.
With SpaceX's future hanging in the balance, Musk rallied his team to build and launch their final Falcon 1 rocket in just six weeks. This period would become the most transformative in the company's history, hardening its DNA and setting the stage for future success.
For the payload, Chris Thompson, Jeff Richichi, and Ray Amador quickly designed "RatSat"-a 364-pound aluminum mass simulator decorated with a cheeky green rat logo inspired by "Rat Fink" hot rod art. Meanwhile, the team worked feverishly to assemble the rocket, with engineers like Zach Dunn and Mike Sheehan often sleeping at their desks.
The jubilant mood aboard the C-17 shattered when a series of loud pops echoed through the cargo bay. As the aircraft descended toward Hawaii, the Falcon 1's first stage began imploding like a crushed beer can. The team realized with horror that they had miscalculated: the rocket's LOX tank couldn't equalize pressure fast enough during descent because the Air Force manual contained outdated information about depressurization rates.
With the rocket still collapsing, Zach Dunn volunteered for a dangerous mission. Telling his friend Mike Sheehan to "pull me out" if the rocket started to blow, Dunn crawled into the dark interstage while sharp components scraped his back. He managed to open a pressurization line, allowing air to rush in just before the C-17 had to descend again.
The damaged rocket reached Kwaj the next day, where borescope inspection confirmed their worst fears-baffles had torn from their brackets inside the LOX tank. In a "ballsy move" born of desperation, they pressure-tested the rebuilt tank using actual rocket propellants rather than inert gas, knowing any failure meant "game over." Miraculously, the tank passed, with pressure even smoothing out some remaining wrinkles. Within a single week, they had accomplished what should have taken six-completely rebuilding a rocket first stage on a remote island with minimal tools.
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The Flight That Saved SpaceX
As the Great Recession deepened, Musk desperately needed a successful launch to save both his companies. While his team prepared on Kwajalein, Musk took his children to Disneyland, riding Space Mountain in what he later considered a possibly lucky superstition. Racing back to SpaceX headquarters, he arrived just before the 4 PM launch window, taking his seat beside Mueller in the Command Van, "stressed out of my mind."
On Kwajalein, the countdown proceeded smoothly with about three dozen staff supporting the mission. Tim Buzza gave a final pep talk, comparing his mostly twenty-something team to NASA's young Apollo-era flight controllers. At 11:15 AM, just fifteen minutes into the launch window, Falcon 1 ignited.
The white rocket with its black interstage rose from Omelek Island, quickly becoming a speck against the azure Pacific. One minute in, calls of "nominal" spread through the control room as the Merlin engine performed flawlessly. After two minutes and forty seconds came the critical moment-stage separation. This time, with a six-second delay programmed in, the stages separated cleanly.
The payload fairing separated perfectly, and the Kestrel engine continued burning. Nine and a half minutes after launch, the engine shut down-RatSat had reached orbit. The control room erupted in celebration.
When Falcon 1 achieved orbit, years of struggle transformed into pure elation. "We went absolutely wild," Zach Dunn recalled. "We were all jumping around. Hugging each other. Screaming. It was a righteous celebration."
In Hawthorne, California, employees and their families erupted in cheers. Musk emerged onto the factory floor, delivering a brief speech calling it "one of the greatest days of my life" before promising "a really great party tonight." The celebration spread to nearby bars-the Purple Orchid and Tavern on Main-where SpaceX veterans finally broke their tradition of drinking after launches regardless of outcome. For the first time, they were drinking to success.
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The Legacy of Falcon 1
Despite the success of Flight Four and joining the exclusive club of orbital launch providers, Musk felt no jubilation-only relief. "It's like the patient survived," he said, his cortisol levels clinically high. Behind the celebration loomed financial disaster. With just one remaining customer for Falcon 1 and no rockets ready to fly, SpaceX faced empty coffers. By fall 2008, Shotwell knew they wouldn't make payroll in 6-8 weeks.
Musk's troubles extended beyond SpaceX. Both SpaceX and Tesla were spiraling toward bankruptcy, with only $30 million left. Friends urged him to save one company, but Musk couldn't choose between his "two children"-Tesla to save Earth from climate change, and SpaceX to make humanity multiplanetary. Their final hope was NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract. Without it, SpaceX would be remembered as "that company that made it to orbit, and then died."
On December 22, 2008, NASA's human spaceflight chief called Musk directly to announce SpaceX had won one of two contracts. Two days later, Tesla closed a financing round providing six months of funding. "It felt like I had been taken out to the firing squad, and been blindfolded," Musk said. "Then they fired the guns, which went click. No bullets came out."
The Falcon 1 team returned to Kwaj in July 2009 to successfully launch Malaysia's Earth-observing spacecraft. Tim Buzza handed control of Omelek Island to Roger Carlson, expecting the small rocket program to continue. In September, SpaceX announced a contract to launch eighteen ORBCOMM satellites on an upgraded Falcon 1e. Weeks later, Musk abruptly announced the Falcon 1 had flown for the last time. Though initially shocked, the team recognized the wisdom in focusing entirely on Falcon 9 and Dragon.
Less than two years after Falcon 1's first successful flight, SpaceX rolled out the massive Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral. Standing 157 feet tall and weighing 735,000 pounds fully fueled, it dwarfed its predecessor. The inaugural Falcon 9 flight was nearly perfect, avoiding pad damage and reaching its target orbit with remarkable precision-missing by only 0.006 degrees.
By the mid-2010s, SpaceX had slashed launch costs to around $60 million per Falcon 9 mission, undercutting every competitor globally and capturing two-thirds of the commercial satellite market. This success forced established players to confront harsh realities-as United Launch Alliance's VP of Engineering Brett Tobey admitted in a leaked 2016 talk, ULA's government launches cost three times more than SpaceX's.
Nearly two decades after his initial inspiration on the Long Island Expressway, Musk remains frustrated that humans still haven't reached Mars: "That's nineteen years ago, and we're still not on Mars... It's a goddamn outrage." This passion drives SpaceX's development of Starship, designed to eventually carry settlers to Mars. From its scrappy beginnings in El Segundo to becoming a global launch leader, SpaceX has come remarkably far-perhaps one day transforming Mars "from a lifeless red planet into a living green Eden."
