A SpaceX share for every kid
On October 19, Musk pledges to give one of his own SpaceX shares to every kid in America next year, “the first of many”: about $10.5 billion of stock. This is the nose of the rocket: where the story is right now.
Nose to engines · Today → 1995
The Timeline
Read it like the rocket. The nose is where the story is right now: a SpaceX share promised to every kid in America. Scroll down toward the engines and you go back in time, all the way to a two-brother startup in 1995. Tap a company to show only its milestones.
Company timelines: SpaceX →Tesla →Neuralink →Boring Co →xAI & X →
Showing SpaceX highlights only. For every launch, model, and key feature, see the full SpaceX timeline →
Showing Tesla highlights only. For every launch, model, and key feature, see the full Tesla timeline →
Showing Neuralink highlights only. For every launch, model, and key feature, see the full Neuralink timeline →
Showing Boring Co highlights only. For every launch, model, and key feature, see the full Boring Co timeline →
Showing xAI & X highlights only. For every launch, model, and key feature, see the full xAI & X timeline →
2026
Optimus production line
In October, production-quality Optimus robots start coming off a Fremont line built for up to a million a year.
Cybercab starts giving rides
In October, Tesla’s steering-wheel-free Cybercab joins the driverless robotaxi fleet in Austin, with Dallas next.
SpaceX’s first profitable quarter as a public company
On October 20, SpaceX reports $14.6 billion in revenue and a $4.4 billion profit, with 13.6 million Starlink subscribers. On the same call, Musk confirms Tesla and SpaceX are exploring a merger.
The Roadster returns, and it jumps
On October 15, after nearly nine years of delays, Tesla unveils the next-generation Roadster in Waco, Texas. Built with SpaceX, it uses cold-gas thrusters to leap over a row of parked Teslas. Production is planned for 2028.
Starlink Mobile lines up its spectrum
From texting in dead zones to a possible full cell carrier: the FCC approves SpaceX’s $17 billion EchoStar spectrum purchase in May, then 15,000 phone satellites in October. On October 8, SpaceX agrees to buy nationwide 800 MHz low-band spectrum, formerly T-Mobile’s, for indoor coverage, pending FCC approval.
Starship reaches orbit with the first V3 Starlinks
On September 28, Flight 14 becomes Starship’s first orbital flight and its first real delivery: 26 V3 Starlink satellites, all confirmed working. That’s about 26 Tbps of new capacity from one launch.
Austin to San Antonio Hyperloop
In September, Musk announces a precursor Hyperloop tunnel at 200+ mph, aiming to turn a trip of up to 2.5 hours in traffic into under 30 minutes.
$3 billion Series D
In September, a UAE-led round values The Boring Company at $23 billion, funding tunnels in the UAE, Las Vegas, and Nashville.
Starmind + AI1
In August, SpaceX and NVIDIA announce the chips for AI1, the first satellite in a planned million-satellite AI compute constellation.
xAI becomes SpaceXAI
In July, xAI is renamed SpaceXAI with a new logo nested inside the SpaceX brand. Grok keeps its name.
Liner Truck 3
Unveiled in August, it hauls tunnel wall segments underground — running on Tesla Model 3 battery packs and drive units.
SpaceX goes public
On June 12, SpaceX lists on Nasdaq as SPCX at $135 a share, valuing the company at $1.77 trillion: the largest IPO ever. It closes its first day at $161. Twenty-four years after nearly running out of money, anyone can now own a piece of it.
Terafab announced
Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI announce a joint chip fab in Texas planned to be the largest building in the world.
SpaceX acquires xAI
In February, SpaceX buys xAI outright. SpaceX now owns xAI, which owns X — with Grok at the center of both.
VOICE trial
Kenneth Shock receives his N1 implant in January as part of Neuralink’s speech trial. By September, a clip of him speaking through the device is shared by Neuralink and Musk himself.
2025
Starlink texts from space
Direct-to-cell service goes commercial in July, letting ordinary phones send texts through Starlink satellites where there’s no cell tower.
Robotaxi launches in Austin
In June, Tesla starts giving paid rides in driverless Model Ys in Austin, Texas.
xAI acquires X
In March, an all-stock deal puts the social platform and the AI company under one roof.
Stranded astronauts come home
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, stuck on the Space Station since June 2024, return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon in March.
2024
The chopstick catch
In October, the launch tower’s mechanical arms catch a returning Super Heavy booster out of the air. Most people watching thought it was CGI.
Polaris Dawn spacewalk
In September, Jared Isaacman performs the first spacewalk ever done on a commercial mission.
First human implant
In January, Noland Arbaugh, paralyzed from the shoulders down, becomes Neuralink’s first patient. Within weeks he’s playing chess and video games with his mind.
2023
Cybertruck deliveries
After four years of waiting and a famous broken-window demo, the first Cybertrucks are delivered in November.
Starship’s first flight
The biggest, most powerful rocket ever built flies for the first time in April. It doesn’t make it to space — but it clears the pad and SpaceX learns fast.
xAI founded
Musk starts xAI in March. Its assistant, Grok, launches later that year with near-live access to what’s happening on X.
2022
Twitter purchase
Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion in October. It’s rebranded to X the following July.
2021
Inspiration4
The first orbital mission with no professional astronauts on board — four civilians, three days in orbit, raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Vegas Loop opens to the public
The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop starts carrying passengers in Teslas through tunnels under the convention center.
The monkey plays Pong
Neuralink shows a monkey named Pager playing Pong using only his thoughts — a preview of what the implant could do for people.
2020
Astronauts launch from America again
Crew Dragon Demo-2 carries two NASA astronauts to the Space Station — the first crewed orbital launch from U.S. soil since the Shuttle retired in 2011, and the first ever on a privately built spacecraft.
2019
First Starlink batch
SpaceX launches the first 60 production Starlink satellites. This is the constellation that now serves millions of people, including in places no cable will ever reach.
2018
Falcon Heavy + Starman
The most powerful rocket flying at the time launches Musk’s own red Roadster, with a spacesuit-wearing mannequin at the wheel, into orbit around the sun. Both side boosters land side by side.
2017
Model 3
The first lower-priced Tesla starts deliveries in July and goes on to become one of the best-selling electric cars ever made.
First reflown orbital booster
In March, a previously flown Falcon 9 booster launches again and lands again. Reuse is now routine, not a stunt.
2016
The Boring Company starts digging
Stuck in Los Angeles traffic, Musk tweets that he’s going to build a tunnel-boring machine and just start digging. He does.
Neuralink founded
A company built around one question: can a brain implant give people with paralysis their independence back?
2015
The first booster landing
On December 21, a Falcon 9 first stage flies back and lands upright at Cape Canaveral. Reusable rockets go from theory to reality overnight.
2013
Hyperloop Alpha
Musk publishes an open-source white paper for pods in a low-pressure tube: LA to San Francisco in about 35 minutes. SpaceX later hosts student pod races on its own test track.
2012
Model S
Tesla’s first car designed from scratch goes on sale and goes on to win just about every major car-of-the-year award.
Dragon docks with the Space Station
The first time a commercial spacecraft ever visited the International Space Station.
2010
Tesla goes public
Tesla’s IPO in June makes it the first American automaker to go public since Ford in 1956.
First Falcon 9 and Dragon flights
Falcon 9 flies for the first time in June. In December, Dragon becomes the first spacecraft from a private company to be recovered after orbiting Earth.
2008
Roadster deliveries + Musk becomes CEO
The Tesla Roadster proves an electric car can be fast and desirable. In October, in the middle of the financial crisis, Musk takes over as CEO.
Falcon 1 reaches orbit
After three failed launches and with money nearly gone, the fourth Falcon 1 makes it — the first privately developed liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit. NASA awards SpaceX a cargo contract that December.
2004
Musk leads Tesla’s first funding round
Tesla was incorporated in 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk leads the Series A and becomes chairman.
2002
SpaceX founded
The goal from day one: make rockets reusable and cut the cost of getting to space enough to eventually reach Mars.
Early Days
PayPal sells to eBay
eBay buys PayPal for $1.5 billion. Instead of retiring, Musk puts most of his share into two companies almost nobody expected to survive.
1999
Early Days
X.com
He starts X.com, one of the first online banks. It merges with Confinity in 2000, and the combined company becomes PayPal.
1995
Early Days
Zip2
Elon and his brother Kimbal start Zip2, an online city-guide and maps company for newspapers. Compaq buys it in 1999 for about $307 million.
That's the base of the rocket. For what's been announced but isn't built yet, see What's Next. For why all of these pieces fit together, see How It All Connects.