The SpaceX Corporation

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Off-World Exploration, Mining, & Technology

Date posted: 05/26/13

SpaceX designs, manufactures, and launches the worlds most advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk to revolutionize space transportation, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Today, SpaceX is advancing the boundaries of space technology through its Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceXs proven designs are poised to revolutionize access to space. Because SpaceX designs and manufactures its own rockets and spacecraft, the company is able to develop quickly, test rigorously, and maintain tight control over quality and cost. One of SpaceXs founding principles is that simplicity and reliability are closely coupled. SpaceX has gained worldwide attention for a series of historic milestones. It is the only private company ever to return a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit, which it first accomplished in December 2010. The company made history again in May 2012 when its Dragon spacecraft attached to the International Space Station, exchanged cargo payloads, and returned safely to Earth - a technically challenging feat previously accomplished only by governments. In October 2012, Dragon again successfully delivered cargo to and from the space station, in the first official cargo resupply mission for NASA.