SpaceX

SpaceX is an American aerospace company founded by Elon Musk in 2002. Its main business is launching things into space for governments and companies, and its big technical bet was reuse: the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket flies back and lands upright so it can fly again, which made launches far cheaper and more frequent. Its Dragon capsule has carried astronauts to the International Space Station since 2020, and it is developing Starship, a fully reusable giant rocket meant for the Moon and Mars.

For most people, though, SpaceX means Starlink: satellite internet from a constellation of thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit. Because they fly much closer than traditional satellites, the signal makes a shorter trip and latency is low enough for video calls and gaming. You get a small dish, point it at the open sky and it connects; it reaches rural areas, ships and planes where fiber optic or mobile networks do not.

Cheap launches and Starlink feed each other: SpaceX launches its own satellites on its own rockets, and Starlink subscriptions became its largest source of revenue. In 2026 it absorbed xAI, Musk's AI company, and went public on the Nasdaq. Astronomers have raised concerns about so many satellites crowding the night sky, and the company's control over internet access in conflict zones has turned it into a geopolitical actor.