Elon Musk founds SpaceX in El Segundo, California as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Goal: reduce space launch costs by a factor of 10+ to enable a self-sustaining city on Mars. Inspired by Mars Society work, frustration with high costs of existing providers, and belief in first-principles engineering + software-like iteration. Early team: recruited from TRW, Boeing, etc. (Tom Mueller for engines, Gwynne Shotwell later President/COO). Falcon 1: small expendable two-stage liquid rocket (Merlin engines). Total dev cost ~$90–100M (internal funding).
Source: spacex.com
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