The road to SpaceX's juggernaut IPO
April 1 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's SpaceX has confidentially filed for its hotly anticipated U.S. initial public offering, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, moving the billionaire closer to having a second publicly traded company in his empire.
Here is a timeline of SpaceX's journey to the blockbuster IPO:
March 2002 - Elon Musk launched SpaceX using money he made from the sale of PayPal.
March 2006 - SpaceX launched its first rocket, the Falcon 1, which failed.
September 2008 - SpaceX's Falcon 1 launched successfully for the first time and became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach Earth's orbit.
December 2008 - SpaceX secured its first major contract with NASA to ferry cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
May 2012 - A Dragon capsule was taken to space by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, making it the first private spacecraft to dock at the ISS.
June 2015 - Falcon 9 Rocket exploded mid-air.
December 2015 - First successful vertical landing of Falcon 9 rocket. The soft touchdown marked the first time any large rocket managed a controlled recovery after delivering a payload into orbit.
February 2018 - The first Falcon Heavy launch carried Musk's Tesla Roadster and its mannequin driver, Starman, into space.
April 2019 - Crew Dragon test vehicle capsule exploded during ground test.
May 2019 - SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites, a constellation capable of beaming signals for high-speed internet service from space to paying customers around the globe.
October 2020 - SpaceX completed its 100th successful flight of a Falcon rocket since Falcon 1 first flew to orbit in 2008.
November 2020 - SpaceX Crew-1 mission - the first operational mission under NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
April 2021 - NASA awarded SpaceX the contract for the first commercial human lander, part of its Artemis program.
September 2021 - SpaceX launched the first all-civilian crew ever to circle the Earth from space.
November 2021 - NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was launched into an interplanetary transfer orbit aboard a SpaceX rocket, marking the world's first test of a planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential asteroid collision with Earth.
April 2023 - First Starship Rocket exploded after losing control.
November 2023 - Starship launch failed minutes after reaching space.
November 2023 - A U.S. judge blocked the U.S. Department of Justice from pursuing an administrative case accusing Elon Musk's SpaceX of illegally refusing to hire refugees and asylum recipients.