SpaceX

Founded in 2002, SpaceX set out to do something no private company had done before: build rockets that come back and fly again. Before SpaceX, every rocket booster was used once and thrown away — like flying a plane across the country and scrapping it after one trip. Falcon 9's reusable boosters changed the economics of getting to space entirely, and SpaceX now launches more often than every other launch provider in the world combined.

Starlink

Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet constellation — thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit beaming internet down to a dish on the ground. It's brought real connectivity to places that never had reliable internet: rural areas, disaster zones after hurricanes, and conflict areas where ground infrastructure was knocked out. It's also the reason a growing number of RVers, boaters, and off-grid campers (Roger included) can get online from basically anywhere.

Bringing astronauts home

In June 2024, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams launched to the International Space Station on Boeing's Starliner capsule for what was supposed to be roughly a week-long test flight. Starliner developed propulsion problems, and NASA ultimately decided it wasn't safe to bring them home on it. They ended up staying on the ISS for about nine months — until a SpaceX Crew Dragon flew the mission that finally brought them back to Earth in March 2025. It's not a story that got a lot of mainstream attention, but it's a real one: when the other option didn't work, SpaceX's spacecraft is what got two American astronauts home.

What's next: Starship

SpaceX's current flagship program is Starship — the largest, most powerful rocket ever built, designed to be fully reusable and eventually carry crews to the Moon and Mars. It's still in active flight testing, with the long-term goal of making life multiplanetary.