Greatest achievements

Dec 31, 2026

First operational payload cadence and orbital propellant transfer still sit ahead.

Holders watch this one because Starlink V3-class bandwidth, HLS, and any Mars stack all assume a working, reusable Starship.

+500 XP · Public test-flight campaign

Aug 30, 2026

Falcon Heavy lofted NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from LC-39A toward Sun-Earth L2 on 30 Aug 2026.

NASA’s next flagship infrared survey observatory left Earth on a Falcon Heavy — a civil-science Heavy flight, not a Starlink run.

+360 XP · SpaceX / NASA Roman launch record

Jul 24, 2026

Flight 13 deployed 20 V3 satellites on a suborbital path. They were tested, then demised ~20 minutes later — not an orbital payload delivery.

Proved the V3 dispenser and radios. Operational constellation fill still waits on orbital Starship flights.

+220 XP · SpaceX Flight 13 recap

Oct 13, 2025

Verified against a SpaceX or NASA success record — not an unverified headline.

A public first on the launch log. Confirm the primary recap.

+260 XP · SpaceX / public test-flight record

Oct 15, 2024

First calendar year with 100 SpaceX launches, reached on a Cape Canaveral Starlink flight.

Cadence is capacity. High flight rate is how Starlink, NASA, and other customers get through the same pad complex.

+320 XP · Public launch record

Oct 13, 2024

Flight 5 — Super Heavy (Booster 12) was the first booster caught by the launch tower.

Catching the booster — and later the ship — is the path to rapid Starship reuse instead of splashdowns. Later gulf splashdowns (including Flight 10) are not catches.

+480 XP · Public test-flight record

Sep 12, 2024

Polaris Dawn conducted the first commercial crew extravehicular activity.

Extended the crew stack beyond ferry flights — suits, hatches, and operations that later lunar work also needs.

+270 XP · Public mission record

Sep 15, 2021

Inspiration4 flew the first all-civilian crew on an orbital mission.

Showed Crew Dragon as a commercial product, not only a NASA taxi.

+240 XP · Public mission record

Apr 16, 2021

NASA selected a Starship-derived Human Landing System for Artemis.

A government lunar contract sits on top of the same vehicle family as the Mars architecture — one stack, two destinations.

+300 XP · NASA HLS award

Oct 27, 2020

Starlink’s paid “Better Than Nothing” public beta opened in the U.S. and Canada.

The launch factory found an internal customer. Bandwidth, not just flight rate, is the long-cycle business.

+400 XP · Public constellation tallies

May 30, 2020

Demo-2 flew NASA astronauts on a privately developed orbital crew vehicle.

Restored U.S. crew launch and created a recurring NASA crew-transport contract.

+450 XP · NASA Commercial Crew

Feb 6, 2018

Falcon Heavy debuted as the most powerful operational rocket then flying.

Added a 60-ton-class vehicle for national-security and high-mass civil payloads while Falcon 9 stayed the workhorse.

+260 XP · Public launch record

Mar 30, 2017

A flown first stage launched again, on SES-10.

The hardware loop closed. Cadence and cost-per-flight became a manufacturing problem, not a one-shot rocket problem.

+420 XP · Public launch record

Apr 8, 2016

First booster landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship at sea.

Unlocked high-energy missions that cannot spare the propellant to fly back to land.

+280 XP · Public launch record

Dec 21, 2015

First orbital-class booster to land intact, at Landing Zone 1.

Turned the first stage from scrap into inventory. Reuse economics start here.

+400 XP · Public launch record

May 25, 2012

Dragon C2+ became the first commercial spacecraft to berth with the ISS (Canadarm2, not a docking).

Opened a cargo franchise with NASA and showed the capsule architecture that later carried crew.

+300 XP · NASA COTS / CRS

Sep 28, 2008

Falcon 1 Flight 4 put a privately funded liquid rocket into Earth orbit.

Proved a commercial shop could reach orbit without a national booster program — the starting XP for everything that followed.

+250 XP · Public launch record