On the eve of SpaceX's historic scheduled launch of its first human spaceflight mission — both the first ever by a private company, and the first to take place on American soil in nearly a decade — we tell the incredible story of its rise from ragtag rocket jocks to the most disruptive and advanced force in aerospace today. While much of the Musk spotlight has shone on Tesla in recent years, is SpaceX actually the company that will have the greatest impact on our world's future, and perhaps even other worlds beyond? All of a sudden that idea seems a little less crazy... 

Sponsors:

Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
ServiceNow: https://bit.ly/acquiredsn
Vanta: http://vanta.com/acquired
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig25

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

Links:

• The Tesla episode: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/season-3-episode-1tesla
• The Ascend Conference: https://www.ascend.events

Carveouts:

• David: The Last Dance:  http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/28973557/the-last-dance-updates-untold-story-michael-jordan-chicago-bulls
• Ben: Michael Mauboussin on the Success Equation: https://youtu.be/1JLfqBsX5Lc

Sources:

• Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance:  https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-SpaceX-Fantastic-Future/dp/006230125X
• https://timelines.issarice.com/wiki/Timeline_of_SpaceX
•  https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/03/spacex-historic-falcon-9-re-flight-ses-10/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/wiki/economics
• https://www.space.com/40547-spacex-rocket-evolution.html
•  https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/08/how-and-why-spacex-will-colonize-mars.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_D._Griffin
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Cantrell
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mueller
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwynne_Shotwell
•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Orbital_Transportation_Services
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Act_Agreement
• https://www.spacex.com/mission/
•  https://venturebeat.com/2008/08/06/private-rocket-company-spacex-gets-20m-from-the-founders-fund/
•  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches
• https://www.space.com/40547-spacex-rocket-evolution.html
•  https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-spacecraft-pictures-elon-musk-2018-2
•  https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/09/inside-the-eight-desperate-weeks-that-saved-spacex-from-ruin/
•  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/science/spacex-nasa-launch.html
•  https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION-SPACEX/010091Q82NF/index.html
•  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/31/elon-musk-spacex-is-now-worth-more-than-tesla.html
•  https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-wins-launch-contract-egyptian-telecom-company/
• https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-booster-overboard/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYocHwhfFDc
• https://oig.nasa.gov/docs/IG-18-016.pdf
•  https://everydayastronaut.com/will-the-falcon-9-actually-be-reusable-or-just-refurbish-able-like-the-space-shuttle/