SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is a space company founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk. It develops rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. SpaceX was the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

History:

In December 2010, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.

Established in 2002 by Elon Musk , the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation, SpaceX has already developed two brand new launch vehicles, established an impressive launch manifest, and been awarded COTS funding by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the International Space Station. Supported by this order book and Mr. Musk's substantial resources, SpaceX is on an extremely sound financial footing as we move towards volume commercial launches.

With the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, SpaceX is able to offer a full spectrum of light, medium and heavy lift launch capabilities to our customers. We are able to deliver spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. The Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are the only US launch vehicles with true engine out reliability. They are also designed such that all stages are reusable, making them the world's first fully reusable launch vehicles. And our Dragon crew and cargo capsule, currently under development, will revolutionize access to space by providing efficient and reliable transport of crew and cargo to the ISS and other LEO destinations.

Our design and manufacturing facilities are located near the Los Angeles International airport, leveraging the deep and rich aerospace talent pool available in Southern California . Our extensive propulsion and structural test facilities are located in Central Texas. We currently have launch complexes available in Vandenberg and Kwajalein Island , and in April 2007 we were granted use of and began developing Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
 

ELON MUSK - CEO AND CTO

Elon Musk is the chief executive officer and chief technology officer of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), which develops rockets and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. Musk served as chief engineer for Falcon 1, the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to reach orbit, as well as Falcon 9 and the Dragon spacecraft. In 2008, SpaceX won the NASA contract to replace the cargo transport function of the Space Shuttle with Falcon 9 and Dragon. President Obama and NASA Administrator Bolden decided in 2010 to outsource astronaut transport to the commercial sector. F9/Dragon is considered by many to be the leading system for that role.

Musk’s other primary activity is serving as CEO and Product Architect of Tesla Motors, where he has overseen product development and design from the beginning, including the all electric Tesla Roadster and Model S sedan. Musk is also the non-executive chairman of SolarCity, the leading provider of solar power systems in California.

Prior to SpaceX, Musk co-founded PayPal, the world's leading Internet payment system, and served as the company's Chairman and CEO. Before PayPal, Musk co-founded Zip2, a provider of Internet software to the media industry.

In 2007, Musk was recognized for his work by Research and Development Magazine’s, receiving their Innovator of the Year Award. He received the 2007/2008 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics award for the greatest contribution to the field of space transportation. In 2008, Musk was named as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine and received the Aviation Week 2008 Laureate for the most significant achievement worldwide in the space industry. In 2009, the National Space Society awarded Musk their Von Braun Trophy, given for leadership of the most significant achievement in space. Most recently in 2010, Musk was recognized as a Living Legend in Aviation by the Kitty Hawk Foundation for creating the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.

He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and currently serves as a member of the Stanford University Engineering Advisory Board.
 

Who founded SpaceX and when?

Elon Musk founded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in 2002 and serves as the company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to SpaceX, Mr. Musk co-founded PayPal, the world’s leading Internet payment system, and served as the company’s chairman and CEO. Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corp., a provider of Internet software to the media industry, and served as chairman, CEO and CTO. In addition to his current day-to-day role at SpaceX, Mr. Musk is also chairman and the primary investor in Tesla Motors and SolarCity, two companies intended to help address CO2 driven climate change.

Where is SpaceX located? Where are its design and test facilities?

SpaceX headquarters is located in Hawthorne, California, near Los Angeles International Airport. Our vehicle manufacturing and design integration facilities are housed in Hawthorne’s 550,000 square foot facility, and it is here that we build all our space systems 'from the ground up'. Engine and large-scale structural testing occurs at our 300-acre test site in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. SpaceX operates launch facilities at the Kwajalein Atoll (Reagan Test Site) in the Marshall Islands, at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. SpaceX also maintains offices in Washington, D.C.

What are the markets for the family of SpaceX launch vehicles?
A: SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles: Falcon1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy, each designed and built for high reliability and cost-efficiency. By incorporating hundreds of innovations in technical design and launch operations, together with a low overhead corporate environment, SpaceX is able to offer unmatched cost savings to customers.

Falcon 1 is the first orbital rocket developed in the 21st century, taking advantage of the latest and most advanced technologies. Falcon 1 serves the small satellite market and is the world’s lowest cost per flight to orbit of any production rocket. Falcon 1 is capable of carrying up to 420 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO); Falcon 1e can carry up to 1,010 kg to LEO.

Falcon 9 serves the medium to large satellite market and has been designed for manned spaceflight. Like Falcon 1, Falcon 9 offers the lowest cost per pound/kilogram to orbit in its class. Falcon 9 is capable of carrying up to 10,450 kg to LEO and 4,540 kg to GTO.

Falcon Heavy will be capable of carrying up to 29,610 kg to LEO and up to 15,010 kg to GTO. Falcon Heavy could have important implications for Mars exploration and even settlement.

SpaceX currently is not pursuing a Falcon 5, but rather upgraded this initial vehicle design to the Falcon 9, largely due to customer requirements for a larger vehicle. Falcon 9 half-bay (dual manifest) missions are available to accommodate payloads that would have been well-suited for Falcon 5.

Q: What is Dragon? What is DragonLab?
A: Dragon is a reusable spacecraft, designed for transporting cargo and crew to and from orbiting destinations. As a free-flying spacecraft, it is also capable of hosting a wide variety of pressurized and unpressurized instruments and science experiments in space. Dragon is being developed in partnership with NASA, under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.

Though designed to address cargo and crew requirements for the International Space Station (ISS), Dragon, as a free-flying spacecraft, also provides an excellent platform for in-space technology demonstrations and scientific instrument testing. SpaceX is currently manifesting fully commercial, non-ISS Dragon flights under the name "DragonLab". DragonLab represents an emergent capability for in-space experimentation.

NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)

Q: How is SpaceX progressing under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition?

A: After a rigorous competition and significant due diligence in 2006, NASA selected SpaceX to demonstrate delivery of cargo (with an option to demonstrate crew carriage) to the International Space Station (ISS). Under its Space Act Agreement with NASA for cargo carriage, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Dragon spacecraft aboard the Falcon 9 rocket to demonstrate this capability. The first of these demonstration launches is set for 2010. SpaceX is the only domestic company developing the near-term capability to launch and return pressurized cargo (and crew) to Earth from space — a capability that could fill the gap in American spaceflight capability to the International Space Station (ISS) when the US Space Shuttle retires.

Q: How is the COTS program unique as a public private partnership and why will it be successful in developing new space assets?
A: NASA’s COTS program is a "pay for performance" partnership between the government and private industry. It is the first program of its kind where the government provides seed money to develop capabilities, but only pays for development after it has taken place. Further, the private company under a COTS agreement must "put its own skin in the game", meeting private capital financial milestones in addition to technical performance milestones. The COTS program is a win-win situation for both government and private industry.

The SpaceX portion of the award is $278M for three flight demonstrations of Falcon 9, carrying our Dragon spacecraft, with the first flight scheduled to occur in 2010. The final flight will culminate in the demonstration of SpaceX’s ability to deliver cargo to the ISS and also return cargo safely to Earth. The agreement also contains an option (COTS-D) for three demonstration flights of a manned version of Dragon, which will culminate with the transport of astronauts to the ISS and back.

Q: How can SpaceX achieve such low-cost access to space?

A: The cost of a rocket is driven by five factors: overhead, propulsion, structures, avionics and launch operations. While we have many original innovations and patents pending on elements of our vehicles, there is no single silver bullet breakthrough responsible for our low costs. Rather, low cost access to space is a result of changing the conventional paradigm for doing business in the space industry.

SpaceX has a flat management structure and singular product focus, resulting in lower overhead costs than other launch vehicle providers and a significant cost advantage for any given rocket design.

Regarding propulsion, structures and avionics, SpaceX vehicles and spacecraft have the advantage of being clean sheet designs, focused purely on reliability and cost (we view the two as inseparable). Falcon 1 is the first orbital rocket developed in the 21st century, taking advantage of the latest and most advanced technologies. Through countdown automation and simplicity of design, our rockets require an order of magnitude smaller launch crew than other US rockets.

Q: How does SpaceX seek to achieve high reliability?

A: SpaceX Falcon family of launch vehicles were designed following a thorough analysis of past launch vehicle failures. Our goal was to benefit from lessons learned and eliminate or minimize the causes of past failures at the design level. Support for the success of our approach can be drawn from a study of US launch vehicles by the Futron Foundation, which concluded that Falcons have the highest design reliability of any American launch vehicle.

SpaceX Falcon Launch Vehicles

Q: What engines power SpaceX Falcon launch vehicles?

A: Falcon launch vehicles are powered by internally-developed SpaceX engines. Rather than relying on outside vendors, we control both reliability and cost by developing our own engines at our facilities in Hawthorne, California. Both the Merlin 1C engine (which powers the first stage of both the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, as well as the second stage of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle) and the Kestrel second stage engine for the Falcon 1 are designed and built with the latest technology and manufacturing capabilities. These factors contribute greatly to mission assurance.

Falcon 1 first stage is powered by a single SpaceX Merlin 1C regeneratively-cooled turbo-pump engine, the simplest possible design for a pump-fed engine. Falcon 1 second stage is powered by a single SpaceX Kestrel ablatively-cooled engine, a simple pressure-fed system which has dual redundant igniters for added reliability and restart. Recent upgrades to Kestrel include increased reliability, weight reduction, and cost savings through a new main valve design, new thrust structure design, new dome material and new ablative chamber design.

A 'hold before release' system enhances reliability. After engine start, Falcon is held down before release for liftoff until all vehicle systems are verified to be functioning normally. Stage separation occurs via a pneumatic pusher system, released by dual initiated separation bolts, which have a zero failure track record in prior launch vehicles.

Falcon 9 first stage is powered by nine SpaceX Merlin 1C regeneratively-cooled engines, which also employ the 'hold before release' system. A single Merlin 1C engine, with a larger vacuum nozzle for efficiency, powers the Falcon 9 upper stage. For added reliability, the engine has dual redundant pyrophoric igniters and four injection ports to ensure engine ignition.

To stay informed about SpaceX progress and news is to sign up the aeospaceguide.net  email newsletter.

• SpaceX: SpaceX Official site

Any comments or suggestions on Space Chimp page, click on Contact Info.