History UsefulNotes / SpaceExplorationTechnologiesCorporation

As to the company's central objectives, [=SpaceX=] is developing a fully reusable giant rocket known as Starship to eventually send people and heavy payloads to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations. It is a [[ShinyLookingSpaceships Shiny Looking Spaceship]] made out of stainless steel, which works for both the [[ReentryScare heat of re-entry]] and storing cold methane and liquid oxygen propellant, which can be manufactured on Mars. The development method tends to involve a lot of trial-and-error, failing relatively cheaply and learning from the mistakes. In April 2021, Starship was selected to be a lunar lander for NASA's Artemis Program. On March 14 2024, Starship successfully launched into low-Earth orbit for the first time, although neither the booster nor the ship survived their descent back through the atmosphere -- the booster spun out of control and hit the Gulf of Mexico at 1,100kph, while the ship began to tumble during atmospheric entry and ultimately became ''the'' largest artificial object to ever burn up on re-entry. Yes, even bigger than [[SpaceStation Mir]].

* ''Series/{{Salvation}}'', like ''For All Mankind'', has an Elon expy in the form of Darius Tanz, and the titular [[TheArk ark ship]] is clearly based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_design_history#Interplanetary_Transport_System ITS]], the original design for [=SpaceX=]'s Starship.

* ''Series/{{Salvation}}'', like ''For All Mankind'', has an Elon expy in the form of Darius Tanz, and the titular [[TheArk ark ship]] is clearly based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_Starship_development#Interplanetary_Transport_System ITS]], the original design for [=SpaceX=]'s Starship.

The primary purpose of Falcon 9 is the Dragon spacecraft. First launched in December 2010, it is capable of delivering over 7,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station. More importantly, with the end of the Space Shuttle program and the limited capacity of the Soyuz spacecraft, it is now the only spacecraft capable of returning bulk cargo to Earth from the ISS. The capsule typically returns by splashing down in the Pacific off the coast of Baja California, Mexico.

The Falcon 9 is also now being used to lift satellites for commercial customers. The first such launch occurred on December 3, 2013, when it lifted a communications satellite for an European customer. The launch vehicle has had over 150 flights since its debut, with flight 19 as its first loss in June, 2015 when it exploded minutes after launch due to an unexpected over-pressurization of the second stage. Another "anomaly" occurred on September 1, 2016 when the rocket spontaneously blew up eight minutes prior to an engine test, destroying the payload and inflicting significant damage to the launch pad. The cause of this second failure was a buckled liner in several of the helium tanks, creating pockets that allowed liquid and/or solid oxygen to accumulate underneath the lining, which was ignited by friction. Following the explosion, [=SpaceX=] has switched to performing engine tests only without attached payloads.

As to the company's central objectives, [=SpaceX=] is developing a fully reusable giant rocket known as Starship to eventually send people and heavy payloads to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations. It is a [[ShinyLookingSpaceships Shiny Looking Spaceship]] made out of stainless steel, which works for both the [[ReentryScare heat of re-entry]] and storing cold methane and liquid oxygen propellant, which can be manufactured on Mars. The development method tends to involve a lot of trial-and-error, failing relatively cheaply and learning from the mistakes. In April 2021, Starship was selected to be a lunar lander for NASA's Artemis Program.

* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': TheTag of Season 1 episode [[Recap/YoungSheldonS1E06APatchAModemAndAZantac "A Patch, a Modem, and a Zantac"]] has a modern-day Elon Musk quickly stuff Sheldon's old notebook into a desk drawer right before he's interviewed about the program's inspiration.

* The shuttle in ''Anime/TheOrbitalChildren'', set in 2045, is based on the [=SpaceX=] Starship. A company called [[BlandNameProduct Space Z]] landed humans on Mars in 2018.

As to the company's central objectives, [=SpaceX=] is developing a fully reusable giant rocket known as Starship to eventually send people and heavy payloads to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations. It is a [[ShinyLookingSpaceships Shiny Looking Spaceship]] made out of stainless steel, which works for both the [[ReentryScare heat of re-entry]] and storing cold methane and liquid oxygen propellant, which can be manufactured on Mars. The development method tends to involve a lot of trial-and-error, failing relatively cheaply and learning from the mistakes. In April 2021, Starship was selected to be the lunar lander of NASA's Artemis Program.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': NASA's crewed mission to Europa in 2024 apparently makes use of a [=SpaceX=] Crew Dragon capsule, judging from the posters seen in Los Angeles, although in practice that role would be better served by a Starship vehicle.

[=SpaceX=] currently conducts launches from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and Pad 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Their mission control center is located at their headquarters in Hawthorne. In December 2013, they entered negotiations to take over the famed Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center (the pad used by most Apollo and Space Shuttle missions), where they will launch all the Falcon Heavy heavy-lift rockets as well as their manned missions. Their inaugural Pad 39A launch was the CRS-10 mission delivering supplies to the International Space Station on 19 February 2017, which also marked their first daytime landing of a booster at their dry-land landing-zone. They are also building a launch center in Brownsville, Texas, with sights on conducting their commercial payload launches from there.

'''Space Exploration Technologies Corporation''', or '''[=SpaceX=]''' for short, is a private corporation based in Hawthorne, UsefulNotes/{{California}}, UsefulNotes/UnitedStates. They have catapulted to the forefront of the privatization of spaceflight in recent years with their Falcon rocket series, and the Dragon spacecraft. [=SpaceX=]'s main goal is the perfection of launch vehicles and spacecraft necessary to accomplish not only a manned landing of Mars, but its ''colonization''.

Founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, one of the founders of [=PayPal=] and chairman Tesla Motors, it committed itself to creating its own equipment in-house. Their earliest rocket, the Falcon 1, went through a long series of trial-and-error in a series of launch attempts from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, until it finally successfully orbited a satellite on September 28, 2008. It completed its first launch for an outside entity on July 14, 2009, with the launch of [=RazakSAT=], an imaging satellite, for Malaysia.

'''Space Exploration Technologies Corporation''', or '''[=SpaceX=]''' for short, is a private corporation based in Hawthorne, California, United States. They have catapulted to the forefront of the privatization of spaceflight in recent years with their Falcon rocket series, and the Dragon spacecraft. [=SpaceX=]'s main goal is the perfection of launch vehicles and spacecraft necessary to accomplish not only a manned landing of Mars, but its ''colonization''.

They also have very little problem having their failures on public display. They made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ a highlight reel of their rocket landing tests]] set to Creator/JohnPhilipSousa's "[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus The Liberty Bell]]" in September 2017.

They also have very little problem having their failures on public display. They made [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvim4rsNHkQ a highlight reel of their rocket landing tests]] set to Creator/JohnPhillipSousa's "[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus The Liberty Bell]]" in September 2017.

[=SpaceX=] typically releases videos of both successes and spectacular landing failures, to many a space fan's merriment, not just to show the technological challenges of landing a rocket, but because StuffBlowingUp is also pretty cool. Musk often uses the term "RUD," or "[[ExpospeakGag rapid unscheduled disassembly]]," when such an event occurs.

[[caption-width-right:350:Privatizing UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace since 2002.]]

* In ''Series/ForAllMankind'''s third season, set in TheNineties of an AlternateHistory in which UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace continued, Dev Ayesa and Helios Aerospace are {{exp|y}}ies of Elon Musk and [=SpaceX=], respectively. Dev announces plans for a crewed mission to Mars in 1994, which shocks NASA and the Soviet Union, who had planned their first missions for 1996. While the 1994 mission involves a modular spacecraft (and former space hotel) known as Phoenix, future plans include a spacecraft called Calypso which looks just like Starship (but with nuclear plasma propulsion).

* In ''Series/ForAllMankind'''s third season, set in TheNineties of an AlternateHistory in which UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace continued, Dev Ayesa and Helios Aerospace are {{exp|y}}ies of Elon Musk and [=SpaceX=], respectively. Dev announces plans for a crewed mission to Mars in 1994, which shocks NASA and the Soviet Union, who had planned their first missions for 1996. Future plans include a Starship-like rocket called Calypso (but with nuclear plasma propulsion).

* In ''Series/ForAllMankind'''s third season, set in TheNineties of an AlternateHistory in which UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace continued, Dev Ayesa and Helios Aerospace are {{exp|y}}ies of Elon Musk and [=SpaceX=], respectively. Dev announces plans for a crewed mission to Mars in 1994, which shocks NASA and the Soviet Union, who had planned their first missions for 1996.