SpaceX and NASA both have engineered rockets, sent people to space and have over 10 thousand people working for them, it is easy to see the similarities but they both heavily contrast from each other too.

NASA has been the main government agency in charge of space exploration in the U.S. since 1958. NASA researches aeronautics and space. One big achievement by NASA is the creation of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, taking Neil Armstrong and others to the moon, allowing him to be the first person to land on the moon and proving America to be a major threat when it came to space exploration. This is just one of NASA’s major accomplishments. On April 24, 1990, NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into space. The purpose of this telescope is to take pictures of planets, stars, galaxies or anything observable in space. According to NASA.gov, the Hubble telescope can see up to 13.4 billion light years away. On Oct. 1, 1958 NASA launched its first satellite into space, Pioneer 1. Today, many satellites surround Earth to provide information about the Earth’s clouds, oceans, land and air. Long-distance phone calls are also possible due to satellites. Signals are sent up to a satellite. The satellite then can send them back down to different places on Earth. Allowing phone calls to be made around the world. On top of that, NASA researches Earth’s climate and studies the changing climate.

SpaceX, founded more recently in 2002 by Elon Musk specializes in engineering affordable rockets and reaching the goal of humans living in space. Musk’s intentions of creating human civilization in space are shown in many interviews, and he believes that history will split along two directions, one of which is where humans stay on earth and die. Musk is planning to prolong the life of humans by making a multi-planet species. Musk says that settling humans on other planets such as Mars to preserve humanity ensures that humans will survive if an extinction event happens on Earth, like an asteroid attack. SpaceX specializes in creating affordable rockets to allow this goal to be achieved along with common travel to space. SpaceX also launches Starlink satellites into space, delivering internet all over Earth. Musk also believes that having faith in the future is essential, and that there is nothing more exciting than its prospects.

NASA is a government research agency that is researching space and aeronautics, as well as looking at galaxies, stars and planets far away using the Hubble Space Telescope. On top of that, NASA is solving problems happening on Earth like climate change. SpaceX is a private company founded by Elon Musk with the goal of engineering affordable rockets for a better chance of commercial travel to space in the future. SpaceX has also made it clear that they are working to make life habitable on mars.