Private companies that compete with SpaceX: who are Elon Musk’s rivals?

SpaceX is arguably NASA’s favorite private space company. CNN announced last Wednesday that NASA had extended its contract with the company by $1.4 billion. to make another 5 launches of astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Hawthorne, California-based aerospace firm was founded by the tycoon Elon Musk in 2002. Its main purpose since then is to reduce the costs of the technology used to travel to space with the intention of facilitating the colonization of Mars.

Among its most notable space vehicles, the satellites stand out. star link, which aim to provide Internet connection to everyone; reusable cargo ship Dragon, which is regularly used for trips to the ISS; the launch system star ship and their rockets falcon.

Its leadership as the most recognized American private space brand by society is closely followed by other companies that intend to surpass it. In this article we are going to talk about the competitors that could reach ‘step on your heels’ a SpaceX.

Blue Origin

This private aerospace transportation company was created in the year 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who is also behind Amazon. Its goal is to design vehicles for suborbital and orbital flights.

Blue Origin stands out, above all, for its reusable rockets New Glenn and New Shepard which they are thanks to their propulsion-controlled descents.

NASA provided Blue Origin with 579 million dollars to carry out the project, but in the end it has opted for SpaceX.
Blue Origin had deals with NASA that ended up being scrapped in favor of SpaceX.
Dave Mosher

The complaints of this aerospace brand for the contract of the POT with SpaceX to design the lunar lander forced to shut it down. As explained the Blue Origin team, SpaceX’s choice was a “high risk” selection that “eliminated the opportunities of the competition”.

Virgin Galactic

It is a private company founded in 2004 by the businessman Richard Branson which seeks to offer manned suborbital spaceflight, suborbital launches for scientific missions and orbital launches of small satellites.

In July 2021, Virgin Glactic made its first manned space voyage, with its own founder on board. This mission placed the company above SpaceX and Blue Origin, according to the opinion from the BBC.

British billionaire Richard Branson reached a long-awaited goal this Sunday and finally reached space aboard a plane from his own company, Virgin Galactic, after taking off from the New Mexico desert and overcoming more than 50 miles (80 km.) height.
British billionaire Richard Branson traveled to space aboard a ship of his own company.

AstraSpace

Its origins date back to 2016, so we are talking about a recently created company. It has several rockets of its own, such as Rocket 3, 3.1 and 3.2 capable of launching a payload into orbit. In 2020, AstraSpace was selected as one of the NASA Launch Services Program companies, where Elon Musk’s firm was also located.

Relativity Space

The startup was created in 2015 and is specialized in the production of rockets designed to put satellites into orbit quickly and affordably. In your case, bet on 3D printing to manufacture parts for their vehicles.

The development of your rocket Terran R it is especially marked by its intention to make it reusable, something that is quite reminiscent of SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

Relativity Space also became part of NASA’s Launch Services Program in 2020, like SpaceX and AstraSpace.

Rocket Lab

We have talked about this company on more than one occasion. in 20BIT, comparing their reusable Electron and Neutron rockets to SpaceX’s. Although its headquarters are currently in California, it was founded in 2006 in New Zealand.

Rocket Lab tested in May this year his new method to capture his own reusable rockets without falling into the water. In rehearsal, they captured an Electron rocket in mid-flight.

Saw Space

It is the oldest private space company on the list of SpaceX competitors, since was founded in the 1960s. Sierra Space was in charge of developing Dream Chaser, a ship designed to transport crew and cargo to objects located in low Earth orbit, such as the International Space Station.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive the latest technology news in your email.

We wish to say thanks to the writer of this article for this awesome material

Private companies that compete with SpaceX: who are Elon Musk’s rivals?