title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan's next film after "Manmadhan Ambu" was 2013's "Vishwaroopam", released in Hindi as "Vishwaroop". It won two National Film Awards (Best Production Design and Best Choreography) at the 60th National Film Awards. Muslim groups in Tamil Nadu demanded the ban of the film and claimed, that the film would hurt Muslim sentiments. Although the film was cleared by Central Board of Film Certification of India, district collectors in the state of Tamil Nadu gave orders to the theatre owners to not show "Vishwaroopam", citing law and order problems. However, the film was released in other states with greater Muslim populations than in Tamil Nadu. A mutual agreement with the Muslims of Tamil Nadu was finally settled on 2 February 2013, when Haasan accepted to mute five scenes. "Vishwaroopam" was the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2013.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In May 2014, he was appointed as the official Indian delegate to the 67th Cannes Film Festival. As of July 2014, he was working on three films: "Uttama Villain", "Vishwaroopam II", the sequel of "Vishwaroopam" and "Papanasam". After 2 years of Vishwaroopam's release, "Uttama Villain" was released on 2 May 2015 with exceptional critical reviews and on 3 July 2015, "Papanasam" a Tamil remake of Malayalam film "Drishyam" was released with positive reviews and became a huge success followed by the bi-lingual "Thoongaa Vanam" and "Cheekati Rajyam", both doing moderate business.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: He was set to reprise his role of Balram Naidu (a Telugu RAW Officer) from "Dasavathaaram" in a spin-off film directed by himself titled "Sabaash Naidu". The film was to be made in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi (as "Shabhash Kundu"). The film's release date has been delayed owing to Haasan's entry into politics, and he pledged that he focus on working on "Indian 2" instead.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: On 17 September 2020, director Lokesh Kanagaraj announced through his Twitter handle that his next venture will have Kamal Haasan in lead role with Anirudh handling the music with the movie titled as "Vikram". It was Kamal Hassan's 232nd film as an actor. The film was released on 3 June 2022 and was a huge commercial success grossing and went on to become the highest-grossing Tamil film of the year and fourth highest-grossing Tamil film of all time by beating the collections made by other Tamil films like "Beast", "Valimai", "Etharkkum Thunindhavan" and "Don" etc. The first single of "Vikram" titled "Pathala Pathala" received several million views from Kamal Haasan's fans and was the most viewed song on YouTube.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: The song also received praise for Kamal Haasan's dance performances which went viral. Despite facing controversies from the song, it became an instant hit. In August 2022, the filming for "Indian 2" resumed, after a break of almost an year. It is now scheduled for release in summer 2023. After "Indian 2", he will be collaborating and reuniting with Mahesh Narayanan and Mani Ratnam respectively, for his 233rd and 234th films.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In addition to acting, Haasan is noted for his involvement in other aspects of filmmaking. He has written many of his films, including "Raja Paarvai", "Apoorva Sagodharargal", "Michael Madana Kama Rajan", "Thevar Magan", "Mahanadhi", "Hey Ram", "Aalavandhan", "Anbe Sivam", "Nala Damayanthi", "Virumaandi", "Dasavathaaram", "Manmadan Ambu" and "Vishwaroopam". Haasan's production company (Raaj Kamal Films International) has produced several of his films, and he directed "Chachi 420", "Hey Ram", "Virumaandi" and "Vishwaroopam". He considered directing full-time if "Hey Ram" was successful, but changed his mind when the film failed at the box office. In his earlier career, he choreographed for MGR in "Naan Yen Pirandhen", Sivaji Ganesan in "Savaale Samaali" and Jayalalithaa in "Anbu Thangai" In 2010 Haasan said he wanted to do more directing, since young actors wished to work for him. When he played supporting roles early in his career he wanted to become a technician and joked: "Film makers like K. Balachander told me that I won't be able make much money by being a technician. So the end result is that the star Kamal funds the technician Kamal in pursuing his dreams". Haasan attended workshops for makeup technicians in the US for several years, and trained as a makeup artist under Michael Westmore.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan has written songs for his films. He wrote the lyrics for a single in "Hey Ram", songs in "Virumaandi" and "Unnaipol Oruvan" and the album for "Manmadhan Ambu". Haasan's musical work has been well received by his peers in Tamil film. He is also a playback singer, singing in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and English. Haasan also wrote the lyrics for a song about the Coronavirus and released its music video, "Arivum Anbum". The album, composed by Ghibran and directed by Haasan, featured Anirudh Ravichander, Yuvan Shankar Raja and a number of other contemporary performers.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In 2021, Haasan featured in a song 'Shades of Blue: A Musical Tribute to Venmurasu' composed by Rajan Somasundaram and released by Director Mani Ratnam in honor of Venmurasu, the longest novel ever written in any language. Earlier, he has spoken in appreciation of Venmurasu and writer Jeyamohan on Bigg Boss during his book recommendations. In 2022, Haasan was the lyricist and the playback singer for the song "Pathala Pathala" from Vikram.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan made his return on Star Vijay TV, hosting the first season of "Bigg Boss Tamil" in 2017. The show soon went onto become one of the most watched television series in Tamil Nadu and gained positive reviews among audience from season 1 onwards. Haasan also hosted the second season of "Bigg Boss Tamil 2" which started its telecast on 17 June 2018, "Bigg Boss Tamil 3" which started its telecast on 23 June 2019 and Bigg Boss Tamil 4 which started telecast on 4 October 2020. He hosted "Bigg Boss Tamil 5" which started to telecast from 3 October 2021. Then, now he is the host to the Bigg Boss Ultimate (Season 1) which is to be launched on Disney+ Hotstar from 30 January 2022. He exited the show after the third week owing to scheduling conflicts with his film "Vikram". Later, Silambarasan replaced him as the host from week 4 onwards.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan was born into a Tamil Iyengar family in the town of Paramakudi, in the Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu, to criminal defence lawyer D. Srinivasan and Rajalakshmi, a housewife. During 2013 his daughter Shruti Haasan appeared on an episode of "Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi", where "phone a friend" option is availed to Shruti and when she called her father Kamal, he stated that his parents named him Parthasarathy before he was called as Kamal Haasan and his mother always used to call him by that name. In an interview with Karan Thapar, Haasan said his father was literate in Sanskrit. Haasan was the youngest of four children; his siblings are Charuhasan, Chandrahasan and Nalini (Raghu). His two older brothers followed their father's example and studied law. Haasan continued his education in Sir M.Ct. Muthiah Chettiar Boys Higher Secondary School and Hindu Higher Secondary School in Madras (now Chennai).


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan has alluded to his parents in some of his works, notably "Unnaipol Oruvan" and in the song "Kallai Mattum" in "Dasavathaaram". His oldest brother Charuhasan, like Haasan, is a National Film Award-winning actor who appeared in the Kannada film "Tabarana Kathe". Charuhasan's daughter Suhasini is also a National Film Award winner married to director (and fellow award-winner) Mani Ratnam, who collaborated with Haasan on 1987's "Nayakan". Chandrahasan has produced several of Haasan's films and was an executive with Raaj Kamal Films International, he died in March 2017. Chandrahasan's daughter Anu Hasan has had supporting roles in several films, including Suhasini's "Indira". Haasan's sister, Nalini Raghu, is a dance teacher for whom he named an auditorium (Nalini Mahal). Her son, Gautham, played Haasan's grandson in "Hey Ram".


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In 1978, at age 24, Haasan married dancer Vani Ganapathy. She acted with Haasan in the 1975 movie "Melnaattu Marumagal". After marriage, Vani worked as Haasan's costume designer for several movies. They divorced ten years later.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan and actress Sarika began living together in 1988, marrying after the birth of their first child, Shruti (born 1986). Shruti is a singer and a Tollywood-Kollywood actress. Their younger daughter, Akshara (born 1991), was assistant director for 2013's "Vishwaroopam" and actress for 2019's "Kadaram Kondan". Sarika stopped acting soon after their marriage, Sarika worked as Haasan's costume designer for the movie "Hey Ram" and won the National Film Award for Best Costume Designer. In 2002, the couple filed for divorce, which became final in 2004. After their divorce, Sarika acted in movies and TV serials, winning the National Film Award for Best Actress for the 2005 film "Parzania".


title: Kamal Haasan

text: From 2005 until 2016, Haasan was in a relationship with actress Gautami, , his frequent co-star during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Gautami had announced on her blog that she had ended her relationship with him writing, "It is heartbreaking for me to have to say today that I and Mr. Haasan are no longer together. After almost 13 years together, it has been one of the most devastating decisions that I have ever had to make in my life."


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Early in his career, he co-starred in several films with Srividya. Haasan visited Srividya on her deathbed in 2006.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan is an atheist. He has often questioned the existence of God and has highlighted the theme in his films like "Anbe Sivam" and "Dasavathaaram". He was mistaken to be Muslim because of his Arabic-sounding name, most notably when he was denied preclearance to travel to the United States by Customs and Border Protection authorities at Toronto Pearson International Airport in 2002.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In Sanskrit "Kamal" means "lotus", but it was rumoured that his name originated with a friend of his father (Yaakob Hassan, a Muslim freedom fighter who was imprisoned along with Kamal's father by the British). In a BBC interview with Karan Thapar, Haasan said that his last name derives from the Sanskrit word "hasya", and although the Yaakob Hassan connection was publicised by the media it was only "a story". Haasan is considered left-leaning or independent. Although he initially abstained from politics, he entered regional politics in Tamil Nadu in 2018. He also said that his entering politics would result in his death within a year.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan is the first Tamil actor to convert his fan clubs into welfare organisations and is involved in social-service activities through the clubs under the name "Kamal Narpani Iyakkam" (Kamal Welfare Association). His fan clubs help organise blood- and eye-donation drives, and donate educational materials to students.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan received the first Abraham Kovoor National Award for his humanist activities and secular life in 2004. He was project ambassador for Hridayaragam 2010, which raised funds for an orphanage for HIV/AIDS-affected children. In September 2010 Haasan launched a children's cancer relief fund and gave roses to children with cancer at Sri Ramachandra University in Porur, Chennai. He has pledged his product-endorsement income to social causes. Haasan, along with his partner Gautami, won  5 million on "Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi" in March 2013 and donated the prize money to "Petral Thaan Pillaya", a nonprofit organization supporting cancer patients.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan was nominated by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Swachh Bharat campaign. He chose to clean the Madambakkam lake in Chennai with the Environmentalist Foundation of India's Arun Krishnamurthy on 7 November 2014.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Known for refusing any kind of brand endorsement, Haasan endorsed Pothys for the first time in 2015. His daughter, Shruti has previously endorsed Pothys. In the past, Haasan has stated that should he ever act in commercials, the revenue earned from them would be donated to HIV affected children.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan publishes the magazine "Mayyam", by the Kamal Haasan Welfare Association ("Narpani Iyakkam").His views on cinema, child and drug abuse, and the Kashmir conflict have been published as "Thedi Theerpom Va" ("Come, Let's Find and Solve") by his fan club. He is also interested in Tamil literature.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: He formed the centrist party Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), a regional political party in Tamil Nadu. He formally announced the party's formation on 21 February 2018 in Madurai. The party's flag displays six joined hands in a circle in alternate red and white colours with a white star at its centre in a black background. Haasan began his political journey from late President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's residence and his memorial at Rameswaram. His party contested in 37 seats in 2019 Indian general election and lost. Makkal Needhi Maiam's vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha election was 3.72% (in the seats it contested).


title: Kamal Haasan

text: He unsuccessfully contested the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election from Coimbatore South and lost to BJP Mahila Morcha President Vanathi Srinivasan by a narrow margin.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan received, in 1990, the Padma Shri, and, in 2014, the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to Indian cinema. At age six, he won the President's Gold Medal for Best Child Actor for his debut film, "Kalathur Kannamma". He is tied with Mammootty for the second most Best Actor National Film Awards with three. He won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for producing the 1992 Tamil film, "Thevar Magan". He has a record 19 Filmfare Awards in five languages; after his last award, in 2000, he wrote to the organisation requesting no further awards. In 2003, his films "Hey Ram", "Pushpak", "Nayakan" and "Kuruthipunal" were showcased in the "Director in Focus" category at the Rotterdam Film Festival. In 2004, "Virumaandi" won the inaugural Best Asian film award at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan).


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In 2005, Sathyabama Deemed University awarded Haasan an honorary doctorate. He received the Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan Award for Excellence in Indian Cinema at the inaugural Vijay Awards in 2006. He received the Living Legend Award in 2007 from FICCI. In 2010, the United Progressive Alliance government organised a retrospective of his films. Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the actor was unique, since his films broke regional and language barriers. That year, the government of Kerala honoured him for 50 years in Indian cinema during statewide Onam celebrations in Thiruvananthapuram.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan received the Kalaimamani Award from the government of Tamil Nadu in 1979. Other honours include Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, Nandi, Screen and Vijay Awards, including four awards for his performance in "Dasavathaaram". In 2009 he was appointed chairman of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Media and Entertainment Business Conclave, organised by FICCI's entertainment division. He is on the academic advisory council for ISFM (International school of Film+Media), and was the first Indian actor invited aboard an American ship as a special friend of the US. In April 2013 he received an award on behalf of Indian cinema from Chris Brown, executive vice-president for conventions and business operations of the National Association of Broadcasters, as part of the New York Festivals International Film & TV Awards. He is one of 20 film celebrities recognised by Coca-Cola India with the launch of the 24th edition of the "Limca Book of Records" in 2013. Recently honoured with S. S. Vasan Award for his lifetime achievement in film industry by Ananda Vikatan.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Mani Ratnam who directed Haasan in "Nayakan", has said that there are many things he can do that no other actor can. Veteran Tamil actor Nagesh called Haasan the best actor he had ever seen. His contributions to the film industry have been praised by his contemporaries, including Mohanlal, Sridevi, Amitabh Bachchan, Mammotty, Venkatesh, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Younger generation actors (Suriya and Madhavan) and filmmakers (Bala, Ameer and Gautham Menon) have been inspired by him.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Hollywood filmmaker Barrie M. Osburne called Haasan's knowledge of literature, history and films "encyclopedic", and Ang Lee said he was stunned by his brilliance and knowledge of films. Some of his films were inspiration for some Hollywood films.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: 'The Week', in its 13 September 1992 edition, reported that Chiranjeevi charged Rs. 12.5 million per film, which was the highest remuneration for an Indian actor at the time. In 1994, Haasan became the first Indian actor to charge 15 million per film.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: In 2015, Haasan was criticised by the-then Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam, who stated that Haasan was "confused" and had "blabbered", unaware of the ground reality for his statement on the government's response to rain relief efforts. Haasan was also criticised by "Nayakan" producer Muktha Srinivasan for his article in "The Hindu" taking unnecessary credit for that film.


title: Kamal Haasan

text: Haasan has been accused of self-indulgence, and has been criticised for sexually explicit scenes and themes, offending religious sentiments and superficiality on social issues depicted in his films. There have also been complaints about his obsession with perfection, which may have caused some of his films to run over budget. In November 2017, Haasan said that right-wing Hindus have started employing extremism to propagate their communal agenda.


title: SpaceX

text: Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. The company manufactures the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Starship launch vehicles, several rocket engines, Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft, and Starlink communications satellites.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX is developing a satellite internet constellation named Starlink to provide commercial internet service. In January 2020, the Starlink constellation became the largest satellite constellation ever launched, and as of December 2022 comprises over 3,300 small satellites in orbit.


title: SpaceX

text: The company is also developing Starship, a privately funded, fully reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight. It is intended to become SpaceX's primary orbital vehicle once operational, supplanting the existing Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon fleet. It will have the highest payload capacity of any orbital rocket ever built on its debut, which is scheduled for early 2023 pending a launch license.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX's achievements include the first privately developed liquid-propellant rocket to reach orbit around Earth; the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft; the first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station; the first vertical take-off and vertical propulsive landing for an orbital rocket booster; first reuse of such booster; and the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and to the International Space Station. SpaceX has flown and landed the Falcon 9 series of rockets over one hundred times.


title: SpaceX

text: In early 2001, Elon Musk donated $100,000 to the Mars Society and joined its board of directors for a short time. He was offered a plenary talk at their convention where he announced "Mars Oasis", a project to land a miniature experimental greenhouse and grow plants on Mars, to revive public interest in space exploration. Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr ICBM for the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell. However two months later, the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty and created the Missile Defense Agency, increasing tensions with Russia and generating new strategic interest for rapid and re-usable launch capability similar to the DC-X.


title: SpaceX

text: When Musk returned to Moscow, Russia with Michael Griffin (who led the CIA's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel), they found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home Musk announced that he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead. By applying vertical integration, using cheap commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch price. Griffin would later be appointed NASA administrator and award SpaceX a $396 million contract in 2006 before SpaceX had flown a rocket.


title: SpaceX

text: In early 2002, Musk started to look for staff for his new space company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached rocket engineer Tom Mueller (later SpaceX's CTO of propulsion) and invited him to become his business partner. Mueller agreed to work for Musk, and thus SpaceX was born. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO) and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations) came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations following the cancellation of the Brilliant Pebbles program. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees.


title: SpaceX

text: Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.


title: SpaceX

text: The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately US$90 million to US$100 million. The Falcon name was adopted from the DARPA Falcon Project, part of the Prompt Global Strike program of the US military.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2006, the company was selected by NASA to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISS under the COTS program.


title: SpaceX

text: The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use by DARPA. The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well, and consequently Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress.


title: SpaceX

text: The financial situation started to turn around with the first successful launch achieved on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company. Musk received outside funding from local entrepreneurs T. Boone Pickens Jr. and Matthew Brown Companies. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1 was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009; this allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at this time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Administrator (and former SpaceX contractor) Michael Griffin.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5. The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9, a reusable heavier lift vehicle. Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006.


title: SpaceX

text: The overall contract award was US$278 million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon.


title: SpaceX

text: As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft.


title: SpaceX

text: The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.


title: SpaceX

text: In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a US$75 million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the ISS. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012.


title: SpaceX

text: In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his 70 million shares were then estimated to be worth US$875 million on private markets, valuing SpaceX at US$1.3 billion. In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.


title: SpaceX

text: After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to US$2.4 billion or US$20/share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $200 million, with Musk investing approximately $100 million and other investors having put in about $100 million.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of the landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide.


title: SpaceX

text: That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX.


title: SpaceX

text: Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA).


title: SpaceX

text: The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over US$400 million over the years.


title: SpaceX

text: In September 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions after certification.


title: SpaceX

text: In January 2015, SpaceX raised US$1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity, in exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at approximately US$12 billion.


title: SpaceX

text: The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.


title: SpaceX

text: The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem was traced to a failed 2-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel, which broke free due to the force of acceleration. This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing the failure.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20.


title: SpaceX

text: In April 2016, the company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) "Of Course I Still Love You" in the Atlantic Ocean.


title: SpaceX

text: By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage.


title: SpaceX

text: A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when a Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test.


title: SpaceX

text: The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at US$200 million, was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels. Though not considered an unsuccessful flight, the rocket explosion sent the company into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned to flight in January 2017.


title: SpaceX

text: Later that year, in March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space. The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket.


title: SpaceX

text: By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about US$12 billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This made SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company, and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, utilizing a small number of SpaceX employees, which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018. During 2018, The Boring Company was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk.


title: SpaceX

text: In January 2019 SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce in order to help finance the Starship and Starlink projects.


title: SpaceX

text: Construction of initial prototypes and tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction and testing moved to the new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year.


title: SpaceX

text: In May 2019 SpaceX also launched the first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning the deployment of what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year.


title: SpaceX

text: By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$33.3 billion and reached US$36 billion by March 2020.


title: SpaceX

text: A major milestone was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years.


title: SpaceX

text: The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


title: SpaceX

text: On 19 August 2020, after a US$1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to US$46 billion.


title: SpaceX

text: In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional billion in an equity round from 99 investors at a per share value of approximately $420, raising the company valuation to approximately billion. By 2021, SpaceX had raised a total of more than billion in equity financing. Most of the capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to US$100.3 billion.


title: SpaceX

text: By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink. A new round of financing in 2022 values SpaceX at US$127 billion.


title: SpaceX

text: In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas, landing a booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021 Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. The majority of 2022 SpaceX launches have focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 2,200 satellites in orbit. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel, after he announced a $100 million donation to the X Prize Foundation the previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best carbon capture technology.


title: SpaceX

text: In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets amid the Ukraine conflict.


title: SpaceX

text: In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted approval to launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift Falcon 1 was the first launch vehicle developed and was retired in 2009. The medium-lift Falcon 9 and the heavy-lift Falcon Heavy are both operational.


title: SpaceX

text: The Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of placing several hundred kilograms into low Earth orbit. It launched five times between 2006 and 2009, of which 2 were successful. The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.


title: SpaceX

text: Falcon 9 is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 22,800 kilograms (50,265 lb) to orbit, competing with the Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets, as well as other launch providers around the world. It has nine Merlin engines in its first stage. The Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on 4 June 2010. Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on 22 May 2012, and launched the first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The vehicle was upgraded to Falcon 9 v1.1 in 2013, Falcon 9 Full Thrust in 2015, and finally to Falcon 9 Block 5 in 2018. The first stage of Falcon 9 is designed to retropropulsively land, be recovered, and reflown.


title: SpaceX

text: The Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 63,800 kg (140,700 lb) to Low Earth orbit (LEO) or 26,700 kg (58,900 lb) to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It uses three slightly modified Falcon 9 first stage cores with a total of 27 Merlin 1D engines.


title: SpaceX

text: The Falcon Heavy successfully flew its inaugural mission on 6 February 2018, launching Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit


title: SpaceX

text: Both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are certified to conduct launches for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL). As of , the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been launched times, resulting in full mission successes, one partial success, and one in-flight failure. In addition, a Falcon 9 experienced a pre-flight failure prior to a static fire test in 2016.


title: SpaceX

text: Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, the company has developed several rocket engines – Merlin, Kestrel, and Raptor – for use in launch vehicles, Draco for the reaction control system of the Dragon series of spacecraft, and SuperDraco for abort capability in Crew Dragon.


title: SpaceX

text: Merlin is a family of rocket engines that uses liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 propellants. Merlin was first used to power the Falcon 1's first stage and is now used on both stages of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles.


title: SpaceX

text: Draco and SuperDraco are hypergolic liquid-propellant rocket engines. Draco engines are used on the reaction control system of the Dragon and Dragon 2 spacecraft. The SuperDraco engine is more powerful, and eight SuperDraco engines provide launch escape capability for crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft during an abort scenario.


title: SpaceX

text: Raptor is a new family of liquid oxygen and liquid methane-fueled full-flow staged combustion cycle engines to power the first and second stages of the in-development Starship launch system. Development versions were test-fired in late 2016, and the engine flew for the first time in 2019, powering the "Starhopper" vehicle to an altitude of .


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX has developed the Dragon spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station. The first version of Dragon, used only for cargo, was first launched in 2010. The currently operational second generation Dragon spacecraft, known as Dragon 2, conducted its first flight, without crew, to the ISS in early 2019, followed by a crewed flight of Dragon 2 in 2020.


title: SpaceX

text: The cargo variant of Dragon 2 flew for the first time in December 2020, for a resupply to the Space Station as part of the CRS contract with NASA.


title: SpaceX

text: In March 2020 SpaceX revealed the Dragon XL, designed as a resupply spacecraft for NASA's planned Lunar Gateway space station under a Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract. Dragon XL is planned to launch on the Falcon Heavy, and is able to transport over to the Gateway. Dragon XL will be docked at the Gateway for six to twelve months at a time.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX routinely returns the first stage of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets after orbital launches. The rocket flights and land to a predetermined landing site using only its own propulsion systems.


title: SpaceX

text: When propellent margins do not permit a return to launch site (RTLS), rockets return to floating landing platform in the ocean, called autonomous spaceport drone ships (ASDS).


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX also plans to introduce floating launch platforms. These are modified oil rigs to use in the 2020s to provide a sea launch option for their second-generation launch vehicle: the heavy-lift Starship system, consisting of the Super Heavy booster and Starship second stage. SpaceX has purchased two deepwater oil rigs and are refitting them to support Starship launches.


title: SpaceX

text: It comprises a reusable first stage, called Super Heavy, and the reusable Starship second stage and space vehicle. The system is intended to supersede the company's existing launch vehicle hardware by the early 2020s.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX initially envisioned a 12-meter-diameter ITS concept in 2016 solely aimed at Mars transit and other interplanetary uses. In 2017 it articulated a smaller 9-meter-diameter vehicle to replace all of its launch service provider capabilities—Earth-orbit; lunar-orbit; interplanetary missions; and potentially, even intercontinental passenger transport on Earth—but do so on a fully reusable set of vehicles with a markedly lower-cost structure.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2018, the Starship system was redesigned to use stainless steel instead of carbon fiber construction, to improve performance while drastically decreasing cost. Private passenger Yusaku Maezawa has contracted to fly around the Moon in a Starship vehicle in 2023. The company's long-term vision is the development of technology and resources suitable for human colonization of Mars.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX started manufacturing the first prototypes of Starship in 2019 at the company's facility in Boca Chica, Texas, later renamed Starbase. It is developing Starship using iterative design principles, aiming to build and test several prototypes at a fast pace. The first successful suborbital flight and landing of a full Starship prototype was achieved in May 2021.


title: SpaceX

text: Starlink is an internet satellite constellation under development by SpaceX. It will use 4,425 cross-linked communications satellites in 1,100 km orbits. Owned and operated by SpaceX, its goal is to increase profitability and cash flow to allow SpaceX to build its Mars colony.


title: SpaceX

text: Development began in 2015, and initial prototype test-flight satellites were launched on the SpaceX Paz satellite mission in 2017.


title: SpaceX

text: In May 2019 SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites aboard a Falcon 9. By May 2021, it had launched 1737 Starlink satellites. Initial test operation of the constellation began in late 2020.


title: SpaceX

text: In March 2017 SpaceX filed plans with the FCC to field a constellation of 7,518 additional V-band satellites in non-geosynchronous orbits to provide communications services.


title: SpaceX

text: In February 2019 it formed a sibling company, SpaceX Services, Inc., to license the manufacture and deployment of up to 1,000,000 fixed satellite Earth stations that will communicate with its Starlink system. On 15 May 2021, SpaceX and Google collaborated to provide data and cloud services for Starlink Enterprise customers.


title: SpaceX

text: The planned large number of Starlink satellites has been criticized by astronomers due to concerns over light pollution, with the brightness of Starlink satellites in both optical and radio wavelengths interfering with scientific observations. In response, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades to Starlink satellites aimed at reducing their brightness. The large number of satellites employed by Starlink also creates long-term dangers of space debris collisions. However, the satellites are equipped with krypton-fueled Hall thrusters which allow them to de-orbit at the end of their life. They are also designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.


title: SpaceX

text: In October 2022 on Eutelsat Hotbird 13F mission, they launched and returned back a hosted promotional payload by FIFA, that was a box powered by starlink containing two Adidas Al Rihla balls on the first stage B1069.3 for opening it's Starlink office in Doha, Qatar. These two match balls were to be used in 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.


title: SpaceX

text: In December 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program to incorporate military or government entity payloads onboard a Starshield satellite bus (based on Starlink Block v1.5 and v2.0 technology).


title: SpaceX

text: In June 2015 SpaceX announced that they would sponsor a Hyperloop competition, and would build a long subscale test track near SpaceX's headquarters for the competitive events. The company has held the annual competition since 2017.


title: SpaceX

text: In collaboration with doctors and academic researchers, SpaceX invited all employees to participate in the creation of a COVID-19 antibody-testing program in 2020. As such 4300 employees volunteered to provide blood-samples resulting in a peer-reviewed scientific paper crediting eight SpaceX employees as coauthors and suggesting that a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus.


title: SpaceX

text: In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children stuck in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, urged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a back-up, in case flooding worsened. Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. By this time, however, eight of the 12 children had already been rescued using full face masks and oxygen under anesthesia; consequently Thai authorities declined to use the submarine.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, which also serves as its primary manufacturing plant. The company operates a research and major operation in Redmond, Washington, owns a test site in Texas and operates three launch sites, with another under development. SpaceX also operates regional offices in Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. SpaceX was incorporated in the state of Delaware.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX Headquarters is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California. The large three-story facility, originally built by Northrop Corporation to build Boeing 747 fuselages, houses SpaceX's office space, mission control, and Falcon 9 manufacturing facilities.


title: SpaceX

text: The area has one of the largest concentrations of space sector headquarters, facilities, and/or subsidiaries in the U.S., including Boeing/McDonnell Douglas main satellite building campuses, Aerospace Corp., Raytheon, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States Space Force's Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and AECOM, etc., with a large pool of aerospace engineers and recent college engineering graduates.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX utilizes a high degree of vertical integration in the production of its rockets and rocket engines. SpaceX builds its rocket engines, rocket stages, spacecraft, principal avionics and all software in-house in their Hawthorne facility, which is unusual for the space industry.


title: SpaceX

text: In January 2015 SpaceX announced it would be entering the satellite production business and global satellite internet business. The first satellite facility is a office building located in Redmond, Washington. As of January 2017, a second facility in Redmond was acquired with and has become a research and development laboratory for the satellites. In July 2016, SpaceX acquired an additional creative space in Irvine, California (Orange County) to focus on satellite communications.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX operates its Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on rocket test stands, and low-altitude VTVL flight testing of the Falcon 9 Grasshopper in 2012–2013 were carried out at McGregor.


title: SpaceX

text: Testing of the much larger Starship prototypes is conducted in the SpaceX South Texas launch site near Brownsville, Texas.


title: SpaceX

text: The company purchased the McGregor facilities from Beal Aerospace, where it refitted the largest test stand for Falcon 9 engine testing. SpaceX has made a number of improvements to the facility since its purchase and has also extended the acreage by purchasing several pieces of adjacent farmland. , the McGregor facility had seven test stands that are operated "18 hours a day, six days a week" and is building more test stands because production is ramping up and the company has a large manifest in the next several years. In addition to routine testing, Dragon capsules (following recovery after an orbital mission), are shipped to McGregor for de-fueling, cleanup, and refurbishment for reuse in future missions.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX currently operates three orbital launch sites, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Vandenberg Space Force Base, and Kennedy Space Center, with another under construction near Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX has indicated that they see a niche for each of the four orbital facilities and that they have sufficient launch business to fill each pad. The Vandenberg launch site enables highly inclined orbits (66–145°), while Cape Canaveral enables orbits of medium inclination (28.5–51.6°). Before it was retired, all Falcon 1 launches took place at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Omelek Island.


title: SpaceX

text: In April 2007 the USAF approved the use of Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) by SpaceX. The site has been used from 2010 for Falcon 9 launches, mainly to low Earth and geostationary orbits. SLC-40 is not capable of supporting Falcon Heavy launches. As part of SpaceX's booster reusability program, the former Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral, now renamed Landing Zone 1, has since 2015 been designated for use for Falcon 9 first-stage booster landings.


title: SpaceX

text: Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4E) leased in 2011, is used for payloads to polar orbits. The Vandenberg site can launch both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, but cannot launch to low inclination orbits. The neighboring SLC-4W has been converted to Landing Zone 4 since 2015, where SpaceX has successfully landed three Falcon 9 first-stage boosters, the first in October 2018.


title: SpaceX

text: On 14 April 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for Launch Complex 39A. The pad was subsequently modified to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX launched its first crewed mission to the ISS from Launch Pad 39A on 30 May 2020. Pad 39A has been prepared since 2019 to eventually accommodate Starship launches. With delays in launch FAA permits for Boca Chica, the 39A Starship preparation was accelerated in 2022.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX manufactures and flies Starship test vehicles from Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas, with future plans to conduct orbital Starship flights in 2021. SpaceX first publicly announced plans for a launch facility near Brownsville, Texas in August 2014. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the permit in July 2014. SpaceX broke ground on the new launch facility in 2014 with construction ramping up in the latter half of 2015, with the first suborbital launches from the facility in 2019. Some residents of Boca Chica Village, Brownsville, and environmental activists criticized the site along with Starship development program in various aspects.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX won demonstration and actual supply contracts from NASA for the International Space Station (ISS) with technology the company developed. SpaceX is also certified for U.S. military launches of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class (EELV) payloads. With approximately 30 missions on the manifest for 2018 alone, SpaceX represents over US$12 billion under contract.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2006, SpaceX won a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS), with a possible contract option for crew transport. Through this contract, designed by NASA to provide "seed money" through Space Act Agreements for developing new capabilities, NASA paid SpaceX US$396 million to develop the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft, while SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with their own resources. These Space Act Agreements have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development 4–10 times cheaper than if produced by NASA alone.


title: SpaceX

text: In December 2010 the launch of the SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. Dragon successfully berthed with the ISS during SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 in May 2012, a first for a private spacecraft.


title: SpaceX

text: Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for delivery of cargo and supplies to the ISS on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded US$1.6 billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions, covering deliveries to 2016. SpaceX CRS-1, the first of the 12 planned resupply missions, launched in October 2012, achieved orbit, berthed and remained on station for 20 days, before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.


title: SpaceX

text: CRS missions have flown approximately twice a year to the ISS since then. In 2015, NASA extended the Phase 1 contracts by ordering an additional three resupply flights from SpaceX, and then extended the contract further for a total of twenty cargo missions to the ISS. The final Dragon 1 mission, SpaceX CRS-20, departed the ISS in April 2020, and Dragon was subsequently retired from service. A second phase of contracts was awarded in January 2016 with SpaceX as one of the awardees. SpaceX will fly up to nine additional CRS flights with the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft. In March 2020, NASA contracted SpaceX to develop the Dragon XL spacecraft to send supplies to the Lunar Gateway space station. Dragon XL will be launched on a Falcon Heavy.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX is responsible for the transportation of NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The NASA contracts started as part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, aimed at developing commercially operated spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS. The first contract was awarded to SpaceX in 2011, followed by another in 2012 to continue development and testing of its Dragon 2 spacecraft.


title: SpaceX

text: In September 2014, NASA chose SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies that would be funded to develop systems to transport U.S. crews to and from the ISS. SpaceX won US$2.6 billion to complete and certify Dragon 2 by 2017. The contracts called for at least one crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard. Once Crew Dragon received NASA human-spaceflight certification, the contract required SpaceX to conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX completed the first key flight test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a Pad Abort Test, in May 2015, and successfully conducted a full uncrewed test flight in early 2019. The capsule docked to the ISS and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2020, SpaceX conducted an in-flight abort test, the last test flight before flying crew, in which the Dragon spacecraft fired its launch escape engines in a simulated abort scenario.


title: SpaceX

text: On 30 May 2020, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the first time a crewed vehicle had launched from the U.S. since 2011, and the first commercial crewed launch to the ISS.


title: SpaceX

text: The Crew-1 mission was successfully launched to the International Space Station on 16 November 2020, with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, all members of the Expedition 64 crew. On 23 April 2021, Crew-2 was launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and K. Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The Crew-2 mission successfully docked on 24 April 2021.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX also offers paid crewed spaceflights for private individuals. The first of these missions, Inspiration4, launched in 2021 on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon "Resilience" from the Florida Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle, placed the Dragon capsule into low Earth orbit, and ended successfully about three days later, when the "Resilience" splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. All four crew members received commercial astronaut training from SpaceX. The training included lessons in orbital mechanics, operating in a microgravity environment, stress testing, emergency-preparedness training and mission simulations.


title: SpaceX

text: In 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, allowing the United States Air Force to purchase up to US$100 million worth of launches from the company. Three years later, NASA announced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for up to US$1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded. In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EELV-class missions: Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2015, while STP-2 was launched on a Falcon Heavy on 25 June 2019.


title: SpaceX

text: The Falcon 9 v1.1 was certified for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) in 2015, allowing SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloads classified under national security.


title: SpaceX

text: This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by United Launch Alliance (ULA) over U.S. Air Force launches of classified payloads.


title: SpaceX

text: In April 2016, the U.S. Air Force awarded the first such national security launch to SpaceX to launch the second GPS III satellite for US$82.7 million. This was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions. SpaceX also launched the third GPS III launch on 20 June 2020. In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional US$290 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three GPS III satellites.


title: SpaceX

text: The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also purchased launches from SpaceX, with the first taking place on 1 May 2017. In February 2019, SpaceX secured a US$297 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three national security missions, all slated to launch no earlier than FY 2021. In August 2020, the U.S. Space Force awarded its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts for the following 5–7 years. SpaceX won a contract for US$316 million for one launch. In addition, SpaceX will handle 40% of the U.S. military's satellite launch requirements over the period.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX also designs and launches custom military satellites for the Space Development Agency as part of a new missile defense system in low Earth orbit. The constellation would give the United States capabilities to sense, target and potentially intercept nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons launched from anywhere on Earth. Both China and Russia brought concerns to the United Nations about the program, and various organizations warn it could be destabilizing and trigger an arms race in space.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX's low launch prices, especially for communications satellites flying to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), have resulted in market pressure on its competitors to lower their own prices. Prior to 2013, the openly competed comsat launch market had been dominated by Arianespace (flying the Ariane 5) and International Launch Services (flying the Proton). With a published price of US$56.5 million per launch to low Earth orbit, Falcon 9 rockets were the cheapest in the industry. European satellite operators are pushing the ESA to reduce launch prices of the Ariane 5 and the future Ariane 6 rockets as a result of competition from SpaceX.


title: SpaceX

text: SpaceX ended the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly of U.S. military payloads when it began to compete for national security launches. In 2015, anticipating a slump in domestic, military, and spy launches, ULA stated that it would go out of business unless it won commercial satellite launch orders. To that end, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce in order to decrease launch costs by half.


title: SpaceX

text: Congressional testimony by SpaceX in 2017 suggested that the NASA Space Act Agreement process of "setting only a high-level requirement for cargo transport to the space station [while] leaving the details to industry" had allowed SpaceX to design and develop the Falcon 9 rocket on its own at a substantially lower cost. According to NASA's own independently verified numbers, SpaceX's total development cost for the Falcon 9 rocket, including the Falcon 1 rocket, was estimated at US$390 million. In 2011, NASA estimated that it would have cost the agency about US$4 billion to develop a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster based upon NASA's traditional contracting processes, about ten times more. In May 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine remarked that thanks to NASA's investments into SpaceX, the United States has 70% of the commercial launch market, a major improvement since 2012 when there were no commercial launches from the country.


title: SpaceX

text: In November 2022, the company announced COO Gwynne Shotwell and vice president Mark Juncosa would oversee Starbase, its Texas launch facility, along with Omead Afshar, who at the time oversaw operations for Tesla in Texas. Shyamal Patel, who was senior director of operations at the site, would shift to its Cape Canaveral site. "CNBC" reported that these executive moves demonstrated "the sense of urgency within the company to get Starship flying."


title: SpaceX

text: According to former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, the company overall has a male-dominated employee culture, similar to that of the spaceflight industry in general. In December 2021, claims of workplace sexual harassment from five former SpaceX employees, ranging from interns to full engineers, were published. The former employees claimed to have experienced unwanted advances and uncomfortable interactions. Additionally, the accounts included claims of a culture of sexual harassment existing at the company and one where complaints made to executives, managers, and human resources officers went largely unaddressed.


title: SpaceX

text: In May 2022, a Business Insider article alleged that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct with a SpaceX flight attendant in a private jet in 2016 citing an anonymous friend of a flight attendant. In response, some employees collaborated on an open letter condemning "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior". It also asks the company to clearly define SpaceX's "no-asshole" and "zero tolerance" policies, which it says is unequally enforced from one employee to the next. The next day, Gwynne Shotwell announced that those employees who were involved with the letter had been terminated and claimed that unsponsored, unsolicited surveys were repeatedly sent to thousands of people during the work day, and that some felt pressured to sign the letter.


title: SpaceX

text: The company has also been described as having a work culture that pushes employees to work excessively, and was described as a burnout culture. According to a memo by Blue Origin, SpaceX expected very long work hours, work on weekends, and limited use of holidays.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and movie appearances at age 13 in "Camp Nowhere" and "The Secret World of Alex Mack" (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series "Dark Angel" (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Her big screen breakthrough came in "Honey" (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including "Fantastic Four" (2005), "" (2007), "Good Luck Chuck" (2007), "The Eye" (2008), "Valentine's Day" (2010), "Little Fockers" (2010), and "" (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in "Sin City" (2005), "Machete" (2010), "" (2011), "Machete Kills" (2013), and "" (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series "L.A.'s Finest".


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including "Men's Health", "Vanity Fair" and "FHM" have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, to Catherine Louisa ("née" Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled in Claremont, California when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as "very conservative… a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family", and herself as very liberal; she says she identified as a "feminist" as early as age five.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. She became isolated from other children at school because she was hospitalized so often, no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba expressed an interest in acting from age five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. She won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed her nine months later. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1994 feature "Camp Nowhere" as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series "The Secret World of Alex Mack". She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series "Flipper". Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and was a PADI-certified scuba diver—skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama "Brooklyn South", as Leanne in two episodes of "Beverly Hills, 90210", and as Layla in an episode of "". In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature "P.U.N.K.S.". After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy "Never Been Kissed", opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little-seen comedy horror film "Idle Hands", alongside Devon Sawa.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from over 1000 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier Max Guevara on the FOX sci-fi television series "Dark Angel". The series ran for two seasons, until 2002, and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max "the archetypal modern feminist hero—a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons. In 2004, Max was ranked #17 in "TV Guide"s list of "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her "Dark Angel" role led to significant parts in films. She had her big screen breakthrough in 2003 when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in "Honey". Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film made US$62.2 million.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film "Sin City" (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in "Fantastic Four" (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. "The Guardian", in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the "Fantastic Four"'s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Alba earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller "Into the Blue", where she portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after finding the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies "King Kong", "" and "The Da Vinci Code".


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba reprised her role in "", released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In "Good Luck Chuck" (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the "Good Luck Chuck"s theatrical posters parodying the well-known "Rolling Stone" cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller "Awake", portraying the girlfriend of a wealthy man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film "The Eye", a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with "The Love Guru"). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy "Meet Bill", alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy "The Love Guru", as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the "San Francisco Chronicle", noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". "The Love Guru" was a critical and commercial flop.


title: Jessica Alba

text: While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in "The Killer Inside Me", an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy "Valentine's Day", in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film "Machete", Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. "Machete" made over US$44 million globally.


title: Jessica Alba

text: The drama "An Invisible Sign of My Own", which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy "Little Fockers", in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in "Machete". Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film "", portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy "A.C.O.D." (2013), portraying what the "Washington Post" described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. "ScreenRant" critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." "A.C.O.D." received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film "Escape from Planet Earth".


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in "Machete Kills" (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in "", which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, "A Dame to Kill For" was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. "Variety" felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy "Dear Eleanor" (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy "Some Kind of Beautiful" (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller "Stretch" (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy "Barely Lethal" (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film "The Veil" (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In the action film "" (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.


title: Jessica Alba

text: She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion .


title: Jessica Alba

text: In early 2013, Alba released her book, "The Honest Life," based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a "New York Times" Best Seller. In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.


title: Jessica Alba

text: As of April 2022, Alba owned 6.5 percent of the company. She is currently employed as the company's chief creative officer, receiving an annually base salary of $700,000 and restricted stock valued $1,500,000.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In June 2009, while filming "The Killer Inside Me" in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to "People" magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2011, Alba participated in a two-day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. She was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2002, she was voted the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named one of "People" Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and appeared in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. She has also been named on "FHM"'s Sexiest Women lists.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba was named among Playboy magazine's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006, and appeared on its cover that year. She was involved in litigation against "Playboy" for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for "Into the Blue") without her consent, which she contended gave the impression that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". She later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from "Playboy" owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities Alba had supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba #1 on its "99 Most Desirable Women" list. In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. She appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar, which featured photos of her posing; Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 "People" named her one of the year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in "Sin City" by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a "GQ" shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba was raised a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:


title: Jessica Alba

text: Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining: "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at age 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series "Chicago Hope". Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds a belief in God.


title: Jessica Alba

text: While filming "Dark Angel" in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, they announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying, "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."


title: Jessica Alba

text: Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming "Fantastic Four" in 2004. They were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of "OK!" magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.


title: Jessica Alba

text: In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series "Finding Your Roots", where her lineage was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".


title: The New York Times

text: The New York Times (the Times, NYT and the Gray Lady) is an American daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to be a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as "The Daily". Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The "Times" has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S.


title: The New York Times

text: The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the paper.


title: The New York Times

text: Since the mid-1970s, "The New York Times" has expanded its layout and organization, adding special weekly sections on various topics supplementing the regular news, editorials, sports, and features. Since 2008, the "Times" has been organized into the following sections: News, Editorials/Opinions-Columns/Op-Ed, New York (metropolitan), Business, Sports, Arts, Science, Styles, Home, Travel, and other features. On Sundays, the "Times" is supplemented by the "Sunday Review" (formerly the "Week in Review"), "The New York Times Book Review", "The New York Times Magazine", and "". The editorial pages of "The New York Times" are typically liberal in their positions.


title: The New York Times

text: "The New York Times" was founded as the New-York Daily Times on September 18, 1851. Founded by journalist and politician Henry Jarvis Raymond and former banker George Jones, the "Times" was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. Early investors in the company included Edwin B. Morgan, Christopher Morgan, and Edward B. Wesley. Sold for a penny (), the inaugural edition attempted to address various speculations on its purpose and positions that preceded its release:


title: The New York Times

text: In 1852, the newspaper started a western division, The Times of California, which arrived whenever a mail boat from New York docked in California. The effort failed once local California newspapers came into prominence.


title: The New York Times

text: On September 14, 1857, the newspaper officially shortened its name to The New-York Times. The hyphen in the city name was dropped on December 1, 1896. On April 21, 1861, "The New York Times" began publishing a Sunday edition to offer daily coverage of the Civil War.


title: The New York Times

text: The main office of "The New York Times" was attacked during the New York City draft riots. The riots, sparked by the institution of a draft for the Union Army, began on July 13, 1863. On "Newspaper Row", across from City Hall, co-founder Henry Raymond stopped the rioters with Gatling guns, early machine guns, one of which he wielded himself. The mob diverted, instead attacking the headquarters of abolitionist publisher Horace Greeley's "New York Tribune" until being forced to flee by the Brooklyn City Police, who had crossed the East River to help the Manhattan authorities.


title: The New York Times

text: The newspaper's influence grew in 1870 and 1871, when it published a series of exposés on William Tweed, leader of the city's Democratic Party — popularly known as "Tammany Hall" (from its early-19th-century meeting headquarters) — that led to the end of the Tweed Ring's domination of New York's City Hall. Tweed had offered "The New York Times" five million dollars (equivalent to  million dollars in ) to not publish the story.


title: The New York Times

text: In the 1880s, "The New York Times" gradually transitioned from supporting Republican Party candidates in its editorials to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland (former mayor of Buffalo and governor of New York) in his first presidential campaign. While this move cost "The New York Times" a portion of its readership among its more Republican readers (revenue declined from $188,000 to $56,000 from 1883 to 1884), the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years.


title: The New York Times

text: After George Jones died in 1891, Charles Ransom Miller and other "New York Times" editors raised $1 million (equivalent to $ million in ) to buy the "Times", printing it under the New York Times Publishing Company. The newspaper found itself in a financial crisis by the Panic of 1893, and by 1896, the newspaper had a circulation of less than 9,000 and was losing $1,000 a day. That year, Adolph Ochs, the publisher of the "Chattanooga Times", gained a controlling interest in the company for $75,000.


title: The New York Times

text: Shortly after assuming control of the paper, Ochs coined the paper's slogan, "All The News That's Fit To Print". The slogan has appeared in the paper since September 1896, and has been printed in a box in the upper left hand corner of the front page since early 1897. The slogan was a jab at competing papers, such as Joseph Pulitzer's "New York World" and William Randolph Hearst's "New York Journal", which were known for a lurid, sensationalist and often inaccurate reporting of facts and opinions, described by the end of the century as "yellow journalism". Under Ochs' guidance, aided by Carr Van Anda, "The New York Times" achieved international scope, circulation, and reputation; Sunday circulation went from under 9,000 in 1896 to 780,000 in 1934. Van Anda also created the newspaper's photo library, now colloquially referred to as "the morgue." In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, "The New York Times", along with "The Times", received the first on-the-spot wireless telegraph transmission from a naval battle: a report of the destruction of the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet, at the Battle of Port Arthur, from the press-boat "Haimun". In 1910, the first air delivery of "The New York Times" to Philadelphia began. In 1919, "The New York Times" first trans-Atlantic delivery to London occurred by dirigible balloon. In 1920, during the 1920 Republican National Convention, a "4 A.M. Airplane Edition" was sent to Chicago by plane, so it could be in the hands of convention delegates by evening.


title: The New York Times

text: In 1920, Walter Lippmann and Charles Merz published A Test of the News, about New York Times coverage of the Russian Revolution. They concluded that its news stories were not based on facts, but "were determined by the hopes of the men who made up the news organisations." The newspaper referred to events that had not taken place, atrocities that did not exist, and reported no fewer than 91 times that the Bolshevik regime was on the verge of collapse.


title: The New York Times

text: Ochs died in 1935 and was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law, Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Under his leadership, and that of his son-in-law (and successor), Orvil Dryfoos, the paper extended its breadth and reach, beginning in the 1940s. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the fashion section first appeared in 1946. "The New York Times" began an international edition in 1946. (The international edition stopped publishing in 1967, when "The New York Times" joined the owners of the "New York Herald Tribune" and "The Washington Post" to publish the "International Herald Tribune" in Paris.)


title: The New York Times

text: After only two years as publisher, Dryfoos died in 1963 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law, Arthur Ochs "Punch" Sulzberger, who led the "Times" until 1992 and continued the expansion of the paper.


title: The New York Times

text: The paper's involvement in a 1964 libel case helped bring one of the key United States Supreme Court decisions supporting freedom of the press, "New York Times Co. v. Sullivan". In it, the United States Supreme Court established the "actual malice" standard for press reports about public officials or public figures to be considered defamatory or libelous. The malice standard requires the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case to prove the publisher of the statement knew the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and difficulty proving malicious intent, such cases by public figures rarely succeed.


title: The New York Times

text: In 1971, the "Pentagon Papers", a secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political and military involvement in the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1967, were given ("leaked") to Neil Sheehan of "The New York Times" by former State Department official Daniel Ellsberg, with his friend Anthony Russo assisting in copying them. "The New York Times" began publishing excerpts as a series of articles on June 13. Controversy and lawsuits followed. The papers revealed, among other things, that the government had deliberately expanded its role in the war by conducting airstrikes over Laos, raids along the coast of North Vietnam, and offensive actions were taken by the U.S. Marines well before the public was told about the actions, all while President Lyndon B. Johnson had been promising not to expand the war. The document increased the credibility gap for the U.S. government, and hurt efforts by the Nixon administration to fight the ongoing war.


title: The New York Times

text: When "The New York Times" began publishing its series, President Richard Nixon became incensed. His words to National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger included "People have gotta be put to the torch for this sort of thing" and "Let's get the son-of-a-bitch in jail." After failing to get "The New York Times" to stop publishing, Attorney General John Mitchell and President Nixon obtained a federal court injunction that "The New York Times" cease publication of excerpts. The newspaper appealed and the case began working through the court system.


title: The New York Times

text: On June 18, 1971, "The Washington Post" began publishing its own series. Ben Bagdikian, a "Post" editor, had obtained portions of the papers from Ellsberg. That day the "Post" received a call from William Rehnquist, an assistant U.S. Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, asking them to stop publishing. When the "Post" refused, the U.S. Justice Department sought another injunction. The U.S. District court judge refused, and the government appealed.