It's been a stellar 18 months for SpaceX. The aerospace company signed a $492 million launch contract—the largest in history—with satellite company Iridium Communications. It received a $75 million slice of NASA pie to develop an escape system for its Dragon spacecraft. And in December, it became the first private company ever to launch a craft into orbit and successfully recover it: After circling the Earth twice, the unmanned Dragon splashed down within a mile of its target in the Pacific Ocean.

"I think it's important that humanity try to become a multiplanet species," says SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. "If we're not steadily improving our access to space, making it more reliable at lower cost and at larger scale, that will never happen." The company says the Dragon capsule will be able to lift seven astronauts into orbit atop its Falcon rocket—more than double the capacity of the Russian Soyuz, at less than one-third of the price per seat.

NASA engineer and 2010 Breakthrough Award winner Daniel Andrews calls SpaceX's achievements "necessary and impressive," poised to create "very real, high-tech jobs in a new market sector." In fact, at press time, SpaceX advertised 130 open positions.





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Art Streiber

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