I'm not sure there are any businesses in space exploration, except as contractors to the national space agencies. Do you mean space travel and transport, the new (government-grant-fuelled) "private enterprise" initiatives? Or do you really want a business engaging in its own space exploration efforts - interplanetary probes, radio telescopes, a manmned mars mission, plantespotting?
As to the former, I think that's reasonably easy.
1864: Karl Schmitt and his son Edgar arrive in New York City. Karl is a restaurant cook by training and spent the last fifteen years of his life in London, having fled Germany in 1849. Karl has left a good job as sous-chef at the Maritime, having first worked for ten years at the Reform. His sons talked him into emigrating to start his own business. They soon finds that the cake in New York is all distributed and strike out for Chicago.
1865: Karl and Edgar Schmitt found Smitt's Inn and Coffee Parlour near the Chicago Central Station. They make good money selling European-style restaurant fair to wealthy travellers and Chicagoans. Edgar frequently travels by rail, both for purchasing and advertising. He usually takes food parcels with him because the fare at railway stations is often poor and rarely predictable.
1868: Smitt's begins selling food parcels to travellers specifically. The hampers come in a variety of versions, designed for journeys of up to a week. Edgar also negotiates opening another Smitt's at St Louis.
1869: Edgar Smitt comes up with a plan to service railway stations throughout the country and approaches the Union and Central Pacific Railroads. The reputation of his Chicago business helps, and though he receives no assistance, the railroad companies agree to not support competitors. Later, this association will become a mutually profitable one, though it is never formalised. Smitt's are opened at Council Bluffs, Philadelphia, and Detroit.
1874: After very negative experiences with franchisees and contractors, Karl and Edgar Smitt develop a concept of standardised cuisine. The kitchens at all Smitt's are already standardised - built to the specification of a reduced Reform Club model on Karl's instructions - and inspired by the Modern Cookery book by Eliza Acton, now the recipes will be, too. Edgar Smitt also begins to look into the possibility of shipping pre-prepared, preserved foods to his restaurants the way Alexis Soyer does with his sauce in Britain.
1883: Smitt's Inn becomes Smitt's Hotel. The company also secures a contract with the UNion Pacific railroad to supply its dining cars with food, recipes, and trained staff. Training at the Chicago headquarters is now so intense that a separate culinary school is built (all Smitt's required one staff member who trained as a chef at their Chicago, Philadelphia or St Louis kitchens. From 1886 onwards, this function would be filled by the Smitt's Culinary Institute).
1887: Smitt's begins marketing its preserved foods (previously supplied to chain restaurants and included in some of its famous hampers).
1900: Smitt's, now incorporated, but still run dictatorially by majoritry shareholder Edgar Smitt, now operates hotels ore restaurants at nearly every major railroad stop in the United States as well as in several major cities away from railway stations. The Smitt's Culinary Institute offers training for restaurant and hotel staff both within and outside the company and publishes several popular recipe books. Smitt's Fine Foods are an established brand in the grocery business, and the company is setting up a research and development division to improve their product.
1907: Smitt's acquires a majority stake in Wittin Machinery Corp., which supplied their kitchen equipment to specification, and begins marketing some of its equipment to outside customers.
1917: Smitt's secures a contract supplying officers' rations following complaints over the quality of some of the food served.
1924: Smitt's opens its first overseas subsidiaries in Europe, Canada and Latin America.
1929: The Depression hits the company hard, and prompts an attempt to reorient towards less costly products. This further hurts the brand name.
1936: Smitt's hotels and restaurants for the first time in the company's history reduce the number of outlets. The sale of canned foods keeps the company afloat.
1939: Smitt's receives government contracts to help develop mess technology for the US forces. Most newly commissioned warships are equipped with Smitt's kitchen devices and the company's dieticians are deeply involved in developing the cookbooks.
1945: Thanks to its wartime boom, Smitt's is now a market leader in professional kitchen appliances and puts money into a major advertising drive for "peacetime quality" food and newly coupon-free restaurants.
1949: Smitt's aggressively aims for contracts for school kitchens, providing low rates and a fully integrated school cookery book.
1954: Smitt's obtains a contract to co-develop space-capasble preserved gourmet foods
1963: Smitt's railway-based hotel chain begins to lose market share. The company realises the importance of the motel segment too late, launches an abortive "Smitt's Travel Inn" chain.
1965: Smitt's Travel Inn are sold to Holiday Inn in return for a contract having Smitt's restaurant franchises in Holiday Inn hotels.
1969: Smitt's food travels on the Apollo 11 mission.
1974: Smitt's begins to lose market share and a rebranding strategy is considered. The company spins off its kitchen appliance segment and dedicates itself to "full experience" gastronomy.
1979: Smitt's restaurants and hotels are increasingly integrated into tourist resorts, with the remaining railway-oriented properties mostly being closed or reduced to chain franchises. The Smitt's Culinary Institute gets a revamp, focusing beyond traditional cordon bleu fare towards world cuisines.
1984: Smitt's rebrands itself "S". Inevitably, with the new logo appearing on delivery vans, "escargot"-jokes follow.
1985: The preserved food and franchise restaurant lines return to the brand name "Smitt's". The new convenience food lines go by "Smitt's Premium", "Smitt's Heritage" and "Smitt's Organic". The holiday resort business remains "S".
1989: Smitt's opens in Warsaw.
1997: "S" resorts are officially more profitable than either Smitt's restaurants or Smitt's food.
1998: bigS.com briefly gains a higher market capitralisation than parent company Smitt's Inc. The cash flow from sales of 49% of the shares floats a huge rejuvenation programme in Smitts.
1999: Smitt's chairman announces the projected opening of an S resort in geostationary orbit. Preliminary agreements with the Russian space agency are signed.
2005: The Russian space agency bows out of the contract. Smitt's approaches Virgin Galactic about a possible cooperation.
2007: Virgin Galactic and Smitt's sign contracts on the joint development of an orbital resort. R&D begins in earnest. The projected launch date is 2030-2045.
2008: Smitt's new line of functional convenience foods "S Orbital" is launched. Virgin begins taking reservations for flights to S Orbital.
Enter the financial crisis. Officially, the project is still on.