It’s hard to keep up with just how many rockets SpaceX—the aerospace phenom helmed by founder and CEO Elon Musk—is hurling to space at any one time, but for those who are keeping track, the company logged a record-breaking 165 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket last year alone. And that’s not all that makes SpaceX a pacesetter. Its Starlink constellation—now with nearly 9,500 satellites with plans to grow to 20,000—has brought internet to conflict zones in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran. In February, SpaceX announced it was merging with xAI, the Musk-founded artificial intelligence company, and the company has sought FCC permission to launch a 1-million-strong constellation of AI satellites that would deliver data powered by the sun and cooled by space. And the company’s Starship rocket, the most powerful launch vehicle ever built, is set for its twelfth test flight this spring. Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, Musk has been talking about colonizing Mars—and, more recently, the moon. The company’s workforce believes in that vision. “If Starship can take 50 to 100 [people] at a time to the moon,” says SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell, “if we can’t do it in 10 years, that would be a shame.”
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