Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
The rocket launch business used to be one of the hardest things humans attempted. For most of the 20th century, only governments could afford it. The United States and the Soviet Union were the main players, and even they faced constant failures. Two of the most well-known failures were the Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003. Those two accidents alone killed fourteen astronauts and showed how dangerous and unforgiving spaceflight really was.
Launching a single rocket often cost billions of dollars and even small design changes required years of testing and approval. Because of that, the idea of a private company building and operating orbital rockets sounded unrealistic.
That situation started to change in the early 2000s.
SpaceX was founded in 2002. Its main goal was to reduce launch costs by building rockets in-house and reusing them. At the time, this approach went against everything the space industry believed. Most experts assumed reusable orbital rockets were impractical and too risky. SpaceX struggled for years, nearly running out of money before finally reaching orbit with Falcon 1 in 2008.
The rocket launch business used to be one of the hardest things humans attempted. For most of the 20th century, only governments could afford it. The United States and the Soviet Union were the main players, and even they faced constant failures. Two of the most well-known failures were the Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Columbia disaster in 2003. Those two accidents alone killed fourteen astronauts and showed how dangerous and unforgiving spaceflight really was.
Launching a single rocket often cost billions of dollars and even small design changes required years of testing and approval. Because of that, the idea of a private company building and operating orbital rockets sounded unrealistic.
That situation started to change in the early 2000s.
SpaceX was founded in 2002. Its main goal was to reduce launch costs by building rockets in-house and reusing them. At the time, this approach went against everything the space industry believed. Most experts assumed reusable orbital rockets were impractical and too risky. SpaceX struggled for years, nearly running out of money before finally reaching orbit with Falcon 1 in 2008.
