TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2025: SpaceX
There may be no rocketeer who has ever had more political and financial muscle than SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The company's Falcon 9 rocket continues to be the world's workhorse launcher, with 489 completed missions since 2010. Its massive, reusable Starship system—still very much in the developmental stage—has had nine launches since 2023, and suffered a launch pad explosion in June in the run up to what was supposed to be its tenth launch. It remains on track to serve as the lunar landing vehicle in NASA's return-to-the-moon Artemis program. But June saw headwinds for Musk, when he and President Donald Trump began feuding over the GOP's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' which Musk opposed, Trump supported, and the House passed in May. The war of social media words quickly devolved, with Trump threatening to void Musk's billions of dollars in government contracts and Musk threatening to ground SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, the only crewed ride to orbit the U.S. currently has. Trump could clobber SpaceX with a stroke of a presidential Sharpie. But it's a sign of Musk's power that Trump wouldn't dare, lest NASA and the private space sector find themselves badly hobbled on Earth. The richest man in the world and the most powerful man in the world are fighting to a draw.
Disclosure: Investors in SpaceX include TIME owner and co-chair Marc Benioff
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