| September 2000 |
Jeff Bezos founds Blue Operations LLC, the precursor to Blue Origin. |
| March 2002 |
Elon Musk incorporates Space Exploration Technologies. |
| December 2003 |
First powered flight of SpaceShipOne. |
| December 2003 |
Musk shows off the Falcon 1 rocket in Washington, DC. |
| September 2004 |
Richard Branson acquires technology behind SpaceShipOne and vows to create the world’s first commercial spaceline with first flights in 2007. |
| October 2004 |
SpaceShipOne wins the Ansari X Prize. |
| March 2005 |
Blue Origin flies Charon, its first test vehicle, to 316 feet. |
| March 2006 |
SpaceX attempts first launch of Falcon 1, which fails. |
| August 2006 |
NASA awards SpaceX a $278 million contract as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. |
| November 2006 |
Blue Origin launches Goddard, a test rocket, to 285 feet. |
| September 2008 |
SpaceX’s Falcon 1 successfully reaches orbit for the first time. |
| December 2008 |
NASA awards SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to fly cargo to the International Space Station. |
| January 2010 |
President Barack Obama releases NASA budget proposal that kills the George W. Bush–era Constellation program. |
| April 2010 |
Obama gives speech at the Kennedy Space Center and visits with Musk at pad 40. |
| June 2010 |
First flight of the Falcon 9 launches successfully. |
| July 2011 |
NASA’s space shuttle flies for the last time, leaving the United States with no way to launch astronauts to space. |
| August 2011 |
Blue Origin’s PM-2 test rocket crashes in West Texas. |
| December 2011 |
Paul Allen announces plans to build Stratolaunch, the largest plane ever built, which would be used to “air launch” rockets. |
| May 2012 |
SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft becomes first commercial vehicle to reach the International Space Station. |
| March 2013 |
Bezos’s deep-sea expedition recovers the F-1 engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. |
| September 2013 |
Tensions between SpaceX and Blue Origin heighten over Launch Complex 39A. Musk says chances of “unicorns dancing in the flame duct” are greater than Bezos building a NASA-qualified rocket that can reach orbit. |
| April 2014 |
SpaceX sues the US Air Force over right to compete for Pentagon launch contracts. |
| September 2014 |
SpaceX and Boeing win contracts to fly NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. SpaceX’s contract is worth up to $2.6 billion; Boeing’s, $4.2 billion. |
| October 2014 |
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashes in the Mojave Desert. |
| April 2015 |
Blue Origin successfully launches New Shepard to the edge of space for the first time. |
| June 2015 |
Falcon 9 explodes during launch to resupply the space station with cargo. |
| September 2015 |
Bezos announces that Blue Origin will launch its new orbital rocket from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral. |
| November 2015 |
New Shepard lands successfully for the first time. |
| December 2015 |
Falcon 9 lands successfully for the first time. |
| February 2016 |
Richard Branson unveils new SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. |
| September 2016 |
Falcon 9 explodes on the launchpad during fueling. |
| September 2016 |
Musk reveals plan to get to Mars during speech at the International Astronautical Congress. |
| October 2016 |
Blue Origin retires its first New Shepard booster after it flies and lands for the fifth time in a row. |
| January 2017 |
Blue Origin pitches NASA on a plan to fly cargo to the surface of the moon. |
| February 2017 |
Musk announces plan to fly two paying citizens around the moon. |
| September 2017 |
Musk announces plan to create a base on the moon. |