From Three Failures to the Largest IPO Ever: How SpaceX Got Here

In the summer of 2008 SpaceX had launched Falcon 1 three times and lost it three times. The money was nearly gone. Elon Musk has said he had enough for one more try.

On 28 September 2008 the fourth Falcon 1 reached orbit. It was the first privately developed liquid-fuelled rocket ever to do so, and it saved the company.

Reuse changed everything

The idea that made SpaceX was not a new engine or a new material. It was refusing to throw rockets away. In December 2015 a Falcon 9 first stage came back and landed upright — the first time an orbital-class booster had ever done that. In 2017 SpaceX flew a used booster again. Today this is routine: by May 2026 Falcon boosters had completed nearly 650 landings and reflights, and Falcon 9 was flying about three missions a week.

Astronauts, satellites and a very big rocket

Since 2020 Crew Dragon has carried astronauts to the International Space Station, the first time a commercial rocket launched humans to orbit. Starlink, started in 2019, grew into SpaceX's biggest business, with more than 12 million subscribers by June 2026. And at Starbase in Texas, Starship — the largest launch vehicle ever built — keeps flying test missions on its way to the Moon and Mars.

The IPO

On 12 June 2026 SpaceX went public. It raised US$86 billion, the largest IPO in history. It briefly made Musk the first US-dollar trillionaire.

Our take

Every expert said a private company could not build orbital rockets, could not land them and could not fly them again. SpaceX did all three, and then built a satellite network on top. The lesson is not about rockets. It is about what happens when someone refuses to accept "impossible" as an answer.