More than twenty years after SpaceX's launch, founder Elon Musk looks back on the company's extraordinary journey. What started in 2002 as an ambitious dream to make space exploration affordable has now grown into a leader in the aerospace industry.
On Friday, the billionaire responded to a post on X (formerly Twitter) that showed the company's evolution. The post featured two side-by-side images: one from the early stages of SpaceX, showing Mr Musk working in a cluttered laboratory full of metal parts and scrap metal, and the other showing the launch of the Starship rocket. The caption read: “How it started versus how it's going.”
In response to the post, Musk replied: “We've come a long way.”
We've come a long way https://t.co/LAKesdMyeD
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2025
This comes after a SpaceX Starship prototype malfunctioned just minutes after launch from Texas on Friday, causing disruptions to airline routes over the Gulf of Mexico to avoid potential debris.
SpaceX mission control lost contact with the upgraded Starship, which was carrying its first test load of fake satellites, about eight minutes after launch from the company's facilities in South Texas. Footage showed bright orange lights flashing across the sky over Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, leaving smoke in their wake.
Despite this, SpaceX's Starship program has achieved several significant successes since its inception. The fourth test flight, conducted on June 6, 2024, marked a major milestone when the Super Heavy booster performed a gentle splash in the ocean and the Starship's upper stage survived atmospheric reentry. This successful test culminated in a controlled splashdown.
The fifth test flight, on October 13, 2024, was another achievement for SpaceX. On this mission, the Super Heavy booster was successfully captured as it returned to the launch site. The Starship's upper stage completed a controlled landing in the Indian Ocean.
On November 19, 2024, SpaceX conducted the sixth flight test, another successful effort. This flight included the first successful in-space relighting of a Raptor engine.