Fortune Staff

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Arising out of the dreams of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to visit Mars, SpaceX has grown into the most successful private rocket launching company in history. Once the domain of government agencies, the launch business is growing increasingly commercial, lowering the cost of placing satellites in orbit. With its reusable rockets, SpaceX is at the forefront of the trend. It has also been hired by NASA to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and is lofting its own constellation of thousands of satellites to provide low-cost Internet access from space.

SpaceX Company Profile, News, Rankings | Fortune

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SpaceX

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Prarthana Prakash

Elon Musk weighs in on a Google and Microsoft search rival, A.I. ‘going Terminator,’ and how to fly to Mars

/2023/05/24/elon-musk-tesla-twitter-spacex-search-mars-remote-work/

Marcia Dunn

The Associated Press

SpaceX just sent 2 Saudi astronauts—including the country’s first woman in space—to the ISS

/2023/05/22/spacex-saudi-arabia-astronauts-first-woman-iss-international-space-station/

Steve Mollman

Warren Buffett is full of praise for Elon Musk ‘solving the impossible,’ but says he and Charlie Munger look for ‘the easy job’

/2023/05/07/elon-musk-warren-buffett-charlie-munger-leadership-success/

Chris Morris

Last week’s SpaceX Starship explosion might have sparked a fire that burned 3.5 acres

/2023/04/27/spacex-starship-explosion-debris-fire/

There are over 1,000 unicorns in the world.

These are the five most valuable unicorns in the U.S.

Venture

No. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Okay. Yeah. Mhm mm hmm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. No, mm hmm. Mhm. Right. No thanks. Mm hmm. Right. Oh, yeah, mm hmm, mm hmm.

Vanessa Clark and Lynette Tan are powering some of the world’s most innovative space startups.

Ladies who launch: Meet some of the female stars of the private space industry

Features

Meet some of the female stars of the private space industry

Mhm. Mhm. I think we've all seen the recent headlines about everything that seems to be really exciting and innovative when it comes to space. And most of those headlines have to do with a very small handful of billionaires, male billionaires like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos and a few others. And what I wanted to do with this particular story is look beyond those headlines, not only at some of the really exciting and promising innovations and advances that are happening in the sector, but I also wanted to really showcase some of the women that are driving some of these innovations. It's been really interesting seeing the evolution of public awareness about musk visas and Branson's effort in space. I first became aware of SpaceX in the late two thousands And when they were first launching their Falcon one rocket, my colleagues and I were stunned that this small upstart from America could actually do this. Like it was incredible. They just put so much more attention onto the space industry and that is important. I think maybe in a way that does undermine the technology development that they put in. For example, you know, it took ill on mask a decade long to get to where he wants to with the reusable rocket, with getting contracts and getting business Richard Branson, you know, with the uh developments on the White Knight. Uh you know, that wasn't something that happened overnight, there was a lot of effort. There was a lot of in genuity, there was a lot many, many technology development, what they're doing is really admirable, but I do think it's time that we pay more attention to minority and diversity founders who are doing the same thing that are coming up close on their heels. So early on in my reporting process, I was introduced to a woman named Candace johnson. She's american, but she's been living in europe most of her life. Her dad actually worked on the very first commercial satellite for the U. S. Government Back in the 60s today. She's not only worked for a handful of satellite companies over the years, but she's also invested in a growing number of space and new space startup. And so early on, she connected me to a very, very long list of women all across the globe out of tumors. We are building and operating space tokes. There's a woman Vanessa clark her company what they're developing, they call it a tugboat for satellites. Were using the technology of tomorrow at a time when we are building and operating orbital transfer vehicles. These are space tugs that allow satellite operators to get to their place in space launch vehicles today are really great for getting payloads into space. But once it's in space, a rocket like that isn't that efficient at moving around, which means if satellite operators want to put their systems beyond low earth orbit or even in difficult to reach places in low earth orbit. It costs a lot of money to get them there with orbital transfer vehicles or space tugs. We can use lowest orbit as a transportation hub. Rockets can launch payloads to low accessible of it. And our orbital transfer vehicles which reside in space can run their view with those payloads, capture them and transfer their payloads to their final destination. Our systems can then return to a low staging orbit to be refueled and serve more customers. So this method saves 20-40% of launch costs for satellite operators and allows really challenging missions that just aren't possible with the rockets that we have today. Lynette Town is based in Singapore and she's trying to not only get more people into the sector, but she's really trying to start at a very young age. So things like space camp and education programs In our education program. We start them from five years old, 15 years old, 25 years old all the way to 75 years old. And some of them have taken part in our programs when they were 15, gone on to 25 and started a space company and then we help them without accelerated program. We help them with the connectivity that we provide them Uh and we provide them access to mentors and experts. We have 34, startups from all over the world from Russia, from Uzbekistan, from New Zealand, from Hong Kong and certainly from Singapore. We incubate them. We provide them with access and connections two key market to end users uh, and certainly of in fundraising, we help to act also accelerate the adoption of the technology to integrate it into systems to prove that their technology could make a difference to enterprises or two people. So we do a whole range of activities almost end to end uh, to get them up into the market so that we can all of us here can use their technologies for life to be better for businesses to be more efficient. Uh, you know, to also make the planet a better place for all of us when it comes to space. You know, the vision for a lot of this for a lot of these innovations is that at some point we become a multi planetary species. That's actually probably going to have and if everything from space suit two vehicles to even like pod that will sustain human life at the onset at least is all being developed and designed by one type of individual, then there are going to be problems because they have really long term and really broad implications for humanity. Um, so that's why I think it's really important to have representation from the get go. So in the U. S. A lot of the large aerospace companies and Nasa have great diversity programs. The recently retired Ceo of Lockheed martin was a woman Ceo of Aerojet Rocketdyne is a woman. Ceo of Northrop Grumman is a woman, these incredible women are breaking the glass ceiling at those large aerospace companies. Now, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there is a really big discrepancy in startups and so it's difficult to get women with families or expecting families soon in early stage startups just because there isn't a stability that that type of candidate would typically look for in leadership and start up something. There's also a discrepancy. I know some great women founders out there who are just not as well funded as their male counterparts, which is something that I think we all have to come together as a community to change. It was tough, it still continues to be tough or we will take a while to break the stereotypes. But you know, I think that's why I find this job particularly meaningful because just being in this position to be able to help others, especially young women, you know, means a lot to me. I would want any young bright brain, you know, who want to reach for the star to not have to face unnecessary challenges to get the ones you really want to be. Like I said, face pack is really super hard, you know, I don't want them to have more, more challenges that they should have. There are still definitely barriers and hurdles um there is still a lack of women globally um and a lack of different ethnicities and races represented throughout a lot of these companies, but I would say, you know more and more, I mean they're really they're investing in each others, companies, their networking with each other. They're giving each other speaking opportunities to sort of elevate their profiles. And there are more and more women and again, more and more people in general that are being attracted to this field.

It's been 60 years since a rocket has blasted off with no professional astronauts on board.

SpaceX's first private flight crew discusses the mission

Briefing

now this is significant and historic because it's going to be the highest that any humans have gone into orbit since the Hubble servicing missions. And in fact there will be above the current orbit of the Hubble and above the current orbit of the international space station for SpaceX is that this will be the first time that we have three dragons on orbit. We'll have a cargo dragon and a crew dragon both at the space station. And we'll have the inspiration for a crew on orbit. And just from the medical officer perspective, I'm so excited about the medical research that we're going to be doing on this flight and we're gonna be collecting a lot of swabs to learn about the microbiome how that changes in flight. We're gonna be performing ultrasounds to evaluate for fluid shifts as well as performing some cognitive tests and studying radiation effects of going to our high out. You know, this is a fundraising effort for thank june and we're really excited to bring along an N. F. T. By kings of leon called time and disguise their new relief hit. And we're going to jam to it on orbit and later auction that for saint jude, which is so special to be part of. Um, but we just couldn't be more excited to to launch tomorrow. So thank you all so much for making this. I'm gonna be the first black female pilot of a spacecraft. There have been three black female astronauts have made it to space and knowing that I'm going to be the fourth means that I have this opportunity to not only um, accomplished my dream, but also inspire and inspire the next generation of women of color and and girls of color and and really get them to think about reaching for the stars. I'm bringing art and poetry with me to space, not only my own original art and poetry, but I'm bringing student art and poetry. I also am very excited that I'll be able to uh try my hand at playing some music on the UKulele up in space. So I apologize for any years that are listening intently, uh, but I'll give it my best shot.

He’ll host “Saturday Night Live” on May 8, 2021

Elon Musk is no stranger to being in front of the camera

Entertainment

Those merlin engines are fantastic. Good idea for an electric jet. Someone hardly touched their pumpkin pie. I want to share it with. No, sir, this is Elon musk. For some reason, he's sharing a console with Homer Simpson. I'm Elon musk. Are we gonna have some fun today? Oh, great. A stupid tour guide. You want tough. Listen, we need your help, rick morty. Why me? Did something happen to Elon musk? Mhm. Yeah, I want a public site.

SpaceX

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America's Most Innovative Companies