How the U.S. space industry became dependent on SpaceX

SpaceX is valued at around $400 billion and is critical for U.S. space access, but it wasn't always the powerhouse that it is today.Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. Using money that he made from the sale of PayPal, Musk and his new company developed their first rocket, the Falcon 1, to challenge existing launch providers."There were actually a lot of startup aerospace companies looking to take on this market. They recognized we had a monopoly provider called United Launch Alliance. They had merged the Boei ...