SpaceX¡¯s willingness to blow stuff up and learn from the failures has propelled it from a cash-strapped startup to one of the world¡¯s most valuable companies (and kick-started a commercial space revolution along the way).
The development of the Falcon 9 rocket was achieved over a relatively short period in space-industry time. That success was built on SpaceX¡¯s willingness to test, fail and repeat rapidly. The Falcon 1 rocket failed three times before reaching orbit on the fourth try in 2008 just before Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk¡¯s money ran out. SpaceX blew up a couple of rockets on the way to Falcon 9 reaching orbit, while Musk helped popularize the phrase ¡°rapid unscheduled disassembly.¡±
This unique engineer-led culture is a reason that buy-side analysts have justified valuations for Musk¡¯s space venture that are, well, out of this world. SpaceX is adept at building complicated hardware and manufacturing almost all components in-house.
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