NOVA Home to Sophisticated Customers, Tremendous Talent Pool

WASHINGTON – Today SpaceX announced it is opening a new office in Chantilly, VA to serve customers looking for reliable, affordable launch solutions. The community is home to some of the world’s leading Internet and high-tech companies.

SpaceX is a leader in launch services with a family of rockets and spacecraft that increase the reliability and performance of space transportation, with a goal of ultimately reducing costs by a factor of ten.

“We are excited to open offices in Chantilly,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and CTO. “It will provide us with valuable access to important customers and an exceptional talent pool as we continue to grow.”

The new office is yet another sign of the company’s success. SpaceX is a growing company with over 1,250 employees, having nearly doubled in size every year since it was founded in 2002. The company has been profitable four years running – from 2007 to 2010.

The Chantilly office is expected to see similar rapid growth as our government and commercial customer base continues to expand. The SpaceX manifest includes over 40 missions across a diverse customer base of both commercial and government customers for the delivery of satellites to orbit.

The December launch was the first flight under NASA’s COTS program to develop commercial supply services to the International Space Station. After the Space Shuttle retires, SpaceX will fly at least 12 missions to carry cargo – including live plants and animals – to and from the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Resupply Services contract for NASA. Orbital of Dulles, VA is also a NASA contractor for both COTS and CRS. The SpaceX COTS and CRS missions will yield valuable flight experience toward the SpaceX goal for the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to one day carry astronauts.

SpaceX has employees across the country and around the globe, with headquarters in Hawthorne, CA; testing facilities in McGregor, TX; launch facilities at the Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral and the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands; and offices in Huntsville, AL and Washington, DC.

For more information visit SpaceX.com.