Liftoff Videos

Every mission, with the videos that tell it

Private spaceflight

Spaceflight is no longer only a government business. These are the companies that launch rockets, fly paying passengers or build the next station, with what they fly and who has flown with them. Each company name links to its page, with the videos about it.

  • 8private companies we follow
  • 18private and suborbital crewed flights
  • 119people have flown with these companies
  • 2021first year of private crewed flight in our records

The companies

8 companies

Key vehicles
SpaceX2002StarbaseLaunch provider, crew and cargo spacecraftFalcon 9, Falcon Heavy, Dragon, Starship1659
Blue Origin2000KentSuborbital tourism, heavy launchNew Shepard, New Glenn935
Rocket Lab2006Long BeachSmall-satellite launchElectron, Neutron00
Virgin Galactic2004Las CrucesSuborbital tourismSpaceShipTwo (VSS Unity)211
Axiom Space2016HoustonPrivate astronaut missions, station modulesAxiom Mission flights on Crew Dragon414
United Launch Alliance2006CentennialLaunch providerAtlas V, Vulcan Centaur00
Sierra SpaceLouisvilleSpaceplane and habitat developerDream Chaser00
Firefly Aerospace2014Cedar ParkSmall launch and lunar landersAlpha, Blue Ghost00

Private crewed flights by year

Crewed flights flown for paying or private customers: suborbital tourist flights, private orbital missions and private visits to the International Space Station. Government crew rotation flights are not counted.

Private and suborbital crewed flights per yearFlights
  • Blue Origin
  • Virgin Galactic
  • Axiom Space
  • SpaceX
  • Other
02465322512021202220232024202520260246532251202120222023202420252026012345532251202120222023202420252026012345532251202120222023202420252026012345532251202120222023202420252026

Source: Wikidata (CC0), pulled 2026-11-02 Download the data (CSV)

A flight counts once. "Other" is private flights whose operator Wikidata does not name.

Show the data
Private and suborbital crewed flights per year
YearBlue OriginVirgin GalacticAxiom SpaceSpaceXOther
202131010
202220100
202301100
202400110
202530110
202610000

Videos by company

Videos

Private spaceflight, in video

Pick a company to see only its videos.

  1. Hera at Didymos: Plan for Two CubeSats and a Close Asteroid Look

    European Space Agency, ESA

  2. Crew-12 Leaves the ISS: Dragon Freedom Undocking Step by Step

    European Space Agency, ESA

  3. Crew-12 Hatch Closure: Dragon Freedom Readies to Leave the ISS

    European Space Agency, ESA

  4. Starship Flight 14 Reaches Orbit and Three Falcons Fly in One Day

    Scott Manley

  5. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 Re-Entry & Splashdown

    NASA

  6. Crew-12 Return: Dragon Freedom Splashdown Off Los Angeles

    European Space Agency, ESA

  7. Five Space Artifacts Adam Savage Identifies at the Air

    Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

  8. Cygnus XL Departs the ISS: Release, Burn and Re-entry Plan

    NASA

  9. Sophie Adenot Back in Europe After 237 Days on the ISS

    European Space Agency, ESA

  10. CRS-35: Falcon 9 Launches Dragon With Final Two ISS Solar Arrays

    NASA

  11. CRS-35: Falcon 9 Launches Cargo Dragon With Final IROSA Arrays

    NASASpaceflight

  12. Starlink 15-25: Falcon 9 B1088 Launch and Landing at Vandenberg

    NASASpaceflight

  13. Crew-12 Crew Look Back on 237 Days Aboard the ISS

    NASA

  14. SpaceX CRS-35 Dragon Docks at the ISS Harmony Zenith Port

    NASA

  15. Galileo: How Europe Built Its Own Satellite Navigation System

    European Space Agency, ESA

  16. New Glenn Recovery: Blue Origin’s Plan for Weekly Launches

    Spaceflight Now

  17. Roman Space Telescope: Falcon Heavy Launch and Path to L2

    NASASpaceflight

  18. ISS iROSA Spacewalks 100 and 101: Final Solar Array Installs

    NASA

  19. NASA Moon Base Rovers: VIPER, Pegasus and the Crewed Lunar Vehicle

    NASA

  20. Bandwagon-5: Falcon 9 Rideshare Launch With Starfall Capsule

    NASASpaceflight

  21. Neutron Delayed to 2027 After Voids Found in Carbon Dome

    Rocket Lab

  22. Artemis 3 Update: Rocket Progress, Landers and the 2028 Plan

    NASA

  23. Rocket Lab’s 98th Electron Launch Deploys Three HawkEye 360 Satellites

    Rocket Lab

  24. Deep Space Updates: MMX to Phobos, Crew-12 Return, Neutron Delay

    Scott Manley

  25. US Spacewalk 100: Installing the Seventh ISS Roll-Out Solar Array

    NASA

  26. Artemis III: Orion Docks With Blue Moon and Starship in Orbit

    The Space Race

  27. Four Satellites That Came Back: LES-1, AO-7, IMAGE and BeeSat 1

    Scott Manley

  28. Starship Flight 14: First Orbit and 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

    Beyond The Space

  29. Starship Flight 14: How V3 Reached Orbit and Deployed 26 Satellites

    Curiously Brief

  30. Starship Flights 1 to 14: How Build-Fly-Fail-Fix Reached Orbit

    Beyond Liftoff

  31. Starship’s 33 Raptor Engines: Four Reasons Behind Super Heavy

    Celebrity Files

  32. Apollo 13: The Oxygen Tank Failure and the Lunar Module Lifeboat

    Deep Orbit Stories

  33. Challenger STS-51-L: O-Ring Failure, Cold Launch and Return to Flight

    FilmRise Television

  34. Challenger STS-51-L: The Night Engineers Said Don’t Launch

    Margin of Loss

  35. Voyager 1 Nears One Light-Day: Thrusters, Power and the Big Bang

    Googol Space

  36. How Starship’s Tower Catches Super Heavy: Flight 5 and After

    look what's inside

  37. Artemis 3 Becomes an Earth-Orbit Rehearsal for Moon Landers

    Cosmic Enigma

  38. Why Starship’s Heat Shield Uses Hexagonal Tiles and Full Reuse

    Farzad

  39. Challenger: the O-Ring Chart and the Launch-Eve Teleconference

    Failure Point for You

  40. Challenger STS-51-L: The Seals, the Cold and 73 Seconds

    Horror Archive

  41. Apollo 13: The Dropped Tank and Switches Behind the Explosion

    Truth and Proof

  42. Voyager 1 Pale Blue Dot: Why the Cameras Looked Back in 1990

    Anaxa

  43. Challenger’s Wreckage: Why NASA Sealed It in Missile Silos

    Rocketyard

  44. Challenger: How Thiokol’s Engineers Were Overruled the Night Before

    Hubris Engine

  45. Curiosity at 14: Keeping a Mars Rover Running by Remote Control

    Modern Mechanisms

  46. Challenger STS-51-L: O-Ring Warnings, Cabin Evidence, Rogers Findings

    Hidden Timeline

  47. Columbia STS-107: Five Failures Behind the Foam Strike on the Wing

    Holes Aligned

  48. Challenger STS-51-L: O-Rings, Cold and the Overruled Warning

    Cindermap

  49. Voyager 1 Reaches One Light-Day: Power, Memory and the Golden Record

    NumberShock

  50. How the Sky Crane Landed Curiosity on Mars in Seven Minutes

    Future Systems Explained

  51. Apollo 13: How a Thermostat Error Led to the Oxygen Tank Blast

    The Last Link

  52. Apollo 13: How an Oxygen Tank Failure Nearly Stranded Three Men

    Gloamhall

  53. Apollo 13: How Aquarius and a Makeshift CO2 Adapter Saved the Crew

    nelii

  54. Six Mars Rovers Compared: Landings, Discoveries and Distances

    Cardsplained

  55. Voyager 1 and 2: Planetary Tour to One Light-Day From Earth

    Deep Orbit Stories

  56. Challenger STS-51-L: The Cold O-Ring and the Launch Call

    Matter & Empire

  57. Apollo 13: The Tank Flaw and Crew’s Lifeboat Return

    The Third Eye English

  58. Challenger STS-51-L: The O-Ring Warning and the 73-Second Flight

    CliphangerEntertainment

  59. Space Shuttle Story in a Card Box: Enterprise, Challenger, Columbia

    The Record Institute

  60. Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

    Oruvi
Play video: Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

Voyager 1: How It Proved It Had Reached Interstellar Space

Oruvi

Duration 7:46

Watch video

Dates are when each video was first published on YouTube.

How these numbers are counted

Company facts (founding date, headquarters, founders) come from Wikidata. Crewed flights are the flights Wikidata names a company as operator of; where it names none, the flight is placed by its name (Blue Origin NS flights, Unity and Galactic flights, Axiom missions). Uncrewed launches are not counted here.

Data as of 2 November 2026. Source: Wikidata (CC0)