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The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is a space-transportation startup company whose stated goal is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space "ultimately by a factor of ten". It is based in El Segundo, California.

SpaceX is developing a family of mostly reusable two-stage kerosene–liquid-oxygen launch vehicles. The Falcon 1 is designed with a reusable lower stage, while the larger Falcon 5 and Falcon 9 will be the world's first fully reusable launchers and have multiple first-stage engines.

Contents

Background

SpaceX was founded in June 2002 by CEO/CTO Elon Musk, who had also co-founded startup companies Zip2 and PayPal. As of March 2006 he had invested about $100,000,000 of his personal wealth in SpaceX. Although Musk has stated that he could financially handle two early-launch failures, he also has said "If we have three consecutive failures […] it's not clear to me that we know what we're doing and maybe we should go out of business."

As of November 2005, the company has approximately 160 employees. The launch crew in the Marshall Islands comprises 25 persons, with 6 in mission control. This small number of employees, when compared to other companies that produce similarly sized rockets, is part of the cost reduction that Musk is trying to achieve. He sees other rocket manufacturers as providing space-launch services at an unreasonably high price to support an unnecessary bureaucracy.

Launcher versions
Version Falcon 1 Falcon 5 Falcon 9 Falcon 9 Falcon 9-S5 Falcon 9-S9
Stage 0 — — — — 2 boosters with 5 × Merlins each 2 boosters with 9 × Merlins each
Stage 1 1 × Merlin 5 × Merlin 9 × Merlin 9 × Merlin 9 × Merlin 9 × Merlin
Stage 2 1 × Kestrel 1 × Merlin 1 × Merlin 1 × Merlin 1 × Merlin 1 × Merlin
Height
(max; m) 		21.3 47 47 53 53 53
Diameter
(m) 		1.7 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6
Initial thrust
(kN) 		318 1,890 3,400 3,400 ? ?
Takeoff weight
(tonnes) 		27.2 154.5 ? 290 ? ?
Fairing diameter
(Inner; m) 		1.5 3.6 3.6 5.2 5.2 5.2
Payload
(LEO; kg) 		570 4,100 9,300 8,700 16,500 24,750
Payload
(GTO; kg) 		— 1,050 3,400 3,100 6,400 9,650
Price
(Mil. USD) 		6.7 18 27 35 51 78
Price/kg
(LEO; USD) 		11,754 4,390 2,903 4,023 3,091 3,152
Price/kg
(GTO; USD) 		— 17,143 7,941 11,290 7,969 8,083
Success ratio
(successful/total) 		0/1 — — — — —

Launches

Falcon 1 was developed and launched first.

Maiden flight

Falcon 1 prototype.
Enlarge
Falcon 1 prototype.

The first Falcon 1 at Space Launch Complex—Three West (SLC-3W), Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Enlarge
The first Falcon 1 at Space Launch Complex—Three West (SLC-3W), Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The maiden launch of the Falcon 1s occurred on 24 March 2006, at 22:30 UTC (09:30 local time, 25 March), from Omelek Island, in the Kwajalein Atoll. After 29 seconds of flight, the main engine failed, leading to loss of the vehicle soon thereafter. An investigation of the cause of the propulsion failure is underway. High-resolution photography of the launch shows the engine on fire during ascent.

At the National Space Symposium, on 5 April 2006, Elon Musk reported that a pad processing error was seemingly responsible for allowing a fuel leak to take place. The fuel leak started 4 minutes prior to engine ignition, and involved only a small quantity of fuel. However, it could have been prevented if loosening of a small fuel pipe fitting required by work on an avionics box the previous night had been correctly retightened. The leak could also have been spotted during the countdown if the proper measurements had been monitored, according to SpaceX's founder.

The company provided a live webcast of the flight from various launchpad cameras, with mission-control voiceover. The webcast showed water-dump, ignition, and pad liftoff. The view switched to an onboard camera, with the atoll clearly receding in the background. About 40 seconds into the flight, the webcast ceased.

The 19.5-kilogram (43-pound) United States DARPA payload FalconSAT-2 was built by United States Air Force Academy cadets to investigate the phenomenon known as "space weather", or plasma in the upper atmosphere. The planned orbit was 450 kilometers (280 miles).

The Falcon 1 maiden flight was originally scheduled for 1:00 P.M. PST (4:00 P.M. EST, 9:00 P.M. GMT) on March 24. An unplanned hold of about 90 minutes occurred because a ship tasked with recovery of the first stage was in a restricted down-range zone.

On March 17 and March 22, before the maiden flight, two static firings were performed in order to validate the rocket hardware and launch procedures.

On November 26, 2005, a launch attempt was postponed ("scrubbed") because of weather and ground-related holds. On December 19, 2005, a second scrub occurred when a faulty valve caused the first-stage kerosene tank to deform during an unfueling maneuver. Subsequently, the launch tower was redesigned to reduce liquid-oxygen boil-off and to avoid wind-related holds. On February 10, 2006, further static testing led to a delay for an unspecified cause.

See also Ariane 5 Flight 501 for comparison.

Upcoming launches

The second Falcon 1 launch will loft an instrumented demonstration payload to return data on the booster's performance; this launch is currently scheduled for September 2006 . The third launch will carry a Naval Research Laboratory Optical Sciences Division Tacsat payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Pad 3W. This launch was originally scheduled for early 2006, and scheduled to carry a secondary payload, arranged through Texas-based Space Services, Inc.: memorial capsules containing the cremated remains of 187 persons, including Project Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and Star Trek actor James Doohan.

The maiden launch of the Falcon 9 is scheduled for late 2007, with a U.S. government payload, followed by a launch, in the first quarter of 2008, with a payload of a Bigelow Aerospace Genesis Pathfinder expandable space-station module[link].

On May 2, 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for Responsive Small Spacelift (RSS) launch services by the United States Air Force, which could allow the Air Force to purchase up to $100,000,000 worth of launches from the company.

Elon Musk indicated at the International Space Development Conference that SpaceX has sold 11 contracts for flights on the various Falcon vehicles.

Future development

Manned orbital spaceflight: SpaceX Dragon

While currently focused on the launch of unmanned spacecraft, SpaceX has announced that it plans to pursue a manned commercial space program through the end of the decade. [link] SpaceX seeks to win America's Space Prize, which will award $50,000,000 to the first US company that launches at least 5 astronauts on a privately financed and developed reusable spacecraft to low Earth orbit twice within 60 days before 10 January 2010. The company has also expressed an interest in competing for crew and cargo resupply contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

More details of the manned program were released on March 6, 2006. The SpaceX Dragon is a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule, capable of carrying 7 persons or a mixture of personnel and cargo, to and from low Earth orbit. The nosecone of the vehicle has a hinged cap, which opens to reveal a standard ISS Common Berthing Mechanism, which allows the Dragon to dock to the U.S. segment of the ISS.

The Dragon capsule will be launched atop a Falcon 9 vehicle.

Heavy lift launchers

On September 8, 2005, SpaceX announced the development of the Falcon 9, an upgrade to the Falcon 5, which would have nine Merlin engines in its first stage.[SpaceX press release on Falcon 9][Selenian Boondocks on Falcon IX] The design is an EELV-class vehicle, intended to compete with the Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets. As in the Falcon 5, all stages will be designed to be reusable. The configuration of Falcon 5 has been changed, so that it is now a downscaled Falcon 9 with five Merlin engines in its first stage and not completely fueled tanks. According to the SpaceX updates webpage, the company has been working on the test stand for the Falcon 9, called the BFTS. This test stand will need to provide for the 350-metric-tons-force (3.4-meganewtons) of thrust that the 9 Merlin 1Bs are capable of delivering. The test stand has been built to withstand 1500 metric-tons-force (15 meganewtons) of thrust.

Additionally, SpaceX has announced plans for the development of the Merlin 2 engine, a scale version of a larger F-1-class engine to be developed in the future. The company is rumored to be working on a very large rocket to accompany the F-1-class engine, known as the BFR.[Hondas in Space] In the past, Musk has said "Long‐term plans call for development of a heavy‐lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand. We expect that each size increase would result in a meaningful decrease in cost per pound to orbit. For example, dollar cost per pound to orbit dropped from $4,000 to $1,300 [$8,800/kg to $2,900/kg] between Falcon 1 and Falcon 5. Ultimately, I believe $500 per pound [$1,100/kg] or less is very achievable." On other occasions, Musk has stated that he expects to be able to offer a price of $1,000 per kilogram by 2010.

Satellite systems

In January 2005, SpaceX bought a 10% stake in Surrey Satellite Technology, Ltd.

External links

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References

 

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