A private company, SpaceX, has made monumental progress within their attempts to strengthen their reusable rocket program. According to SpaceX’s website, the development of the reusable rockets is “Feat that will transform space exploration by delivering highly reliable vehicles at radically reduced costs.”

Founded in 2002 by CEO and lead designer Elon Musk, the company has had many breakthroughs under the team consisting of over 4,000 employees. One of these advancements includes the Dragon, a privately developed spacecraft that became the first in history to re-enter low-Earth orbit on Dec. 8, 2010. In May 2012, the Dragon also became the first private spacecraft in history to visit the space station. Another major progression of their program was the successful addition to their line-up: the Falcon 9.

The Falcon 9 is a rocket that SpaceX designed and manufactured for its reliability and stability. It’s a two-stage rocket; its main priority is to provide safe transport of satellites and the Dragon into orbit. Furthermore, the Falcon 9 was the first rocket to be entirely developed in the 21st century. During its first stage, the Falcon 9 has nine engines that have a burn time of 162 seconds and produce 7,607 kN (1,711,575 pounds) of thrust at sea level. At its second stage, the rocket is limited to one engine with a burn time of 397 seconds and has 934 kN (210,150 pounds) of thrust.

The success of the Falcon 9 has lead SpaceX to develop a variant of the rocket: Falcon Heavy, a rocket that is expected to be the most powerful, cost-effective, heavy-lift launch vehicle in the world by a factor of two. The Falcon Heavy will lift off sometime this year. The rocket will have the capability to lift into orbit over 54 metric tons or 119,000 lbs. The mass it’s able to lift is equivalent to that of a 737 jetliner complete with a load of passengers, crew, luggage and fuel.

While the costs of the Falcon 9 are set at $62 million, the Falcon Heavy costs $90 million. SpaceX’s website also boasts that “Each of Falcon Heavy’s side cores, or boosters, is equivalent to the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket with nine Merlin engines.” The Falcon Heavy has three cores in its entirety, consisting of 27 Merlin engines.

The program has set many goals for themselves. On Feb. 27, SpaceX announced that it had been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon by late 2018. And as for the reusable program, Musk gave his insight on that objective, saying, “If one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets just like airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred. A fully reusable vehicle has never been done before. That really is the fundamental breakthrough needed to revolutionize access to space.”

As for talk of the future, SpaceX has over 70 upcoming missions on its manifest, totaling more than $10 billion in contracts. That number doesn’t include its current contract with NASA, which is worth $1.6 billion.