SpaceX's valuation has grown exponentially since its 2002 founding.
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Nearly 25 years ago, a mariachi band played at a SpaceX party while Elon Musk posed for a photo. The rocket company's head count was single digits back then. Today, it's over 22,000.SpaceX started with two long-shot goals: make rockets cheaper to launch and, eventually, send mankind to Mars.More than two decades later, Elon Musk's space company has decisively accomplished the first, and went public on Friday at a historic $1.8 trillion valuation. The trading milestone followed years of fiery explosions, reusable-rocket breakthroughs, astronaut flights, and the rise of Starlink, its golden goose satellite-internet business.From the scrappy startup days to fiery launches (and plenty of explosions) and catching a returning rocket in giant mechanical pincers, these photos and videos show SpaceX's rise to IPO juggernaut.2002: SpaceX is bornUsing part of the fortune he made from PayPal, Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 in an El Segundo, California, warehouse. The company sought to challenge entrenched players in the rocket industry — including Lockheed Martin and Boeing — and make space travel less expensive.Those dreams had a meager beginning."SpaceX was less than 10 people back then," Musk wrote on X. "We didn't even have office furniture."
