SpaceX

Type Private

Industry Aerospace

Founded 2002

Founder Elon Musk

Headquarters Hawthorne, California, USA33.920682°N 118.327802°W

Key people Elon Musk(CEO and CTO)

Gwynne Shotwell(President and COO)

Tom Mueller(VP of Propulsion)

Services Orbital rocket launch

Number ofemployees

4,000+ (July 2015)

Website SpaceX.com(http://www.spacex.com)

Footnotes / references[1][2][3][4]

SpaceX

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) isan American aerospace manufacturer and space transportservices company with its headquarters in Hawthorne,California, USA. It was founded in 2002 by former PayPalentrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk with the goalof creating the technologies to reduce space transportationcosts and enable the colonization of Mars. It has developedthe Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles, both of whichwere designed from conception to eventually becomereusable, and the Dragon spacecraft which is flown into orbitby the Falcon 9 launch vehicle to supply the InternationalSpace Station (ISS) with cargo. A manned version of Dragonis in development.

SpaceX's achievements include the first privately funded,liquid-propellant rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit, in 2008;[5]

the first privately funded company to successfully launch,orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon), in 2010; and the firstprivate company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the ISS, in2012.[6] The launch of SES-8, in 2013, was the first SpaceXdelivery into geosynchronous orbit, while the launch of theDeep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), in 2015, wasthe company's first delivery beyond Earth orbit. OnDecember 21, 2015, SpaceX successfully returned a firststage booster back to the ground at Cape Canaveral, the firstsuch accomplishment by an orbit-capable rocket.

NASA awarded the company a Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract in 2006, to designand demonstrate a launch system to resupply cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX, as of May2015 has flown six missions to the ISS under a cargo resupply contract.[7] NASA also awarded SpaceX acontract in 2011 to develop and demonstrate a human-rated Dragon as part of its Commercial CrewDevelopment (CCDev) program to transport crew to the ISS.[8]

1 History1.1 History1.2 Funding1.3 Goals

2 Facilities2.1 Headquarters and rocket manufacturing plant2.2 Satellite development facility2.3 Regional offices2.4 Test and post-flight disassembly facilities

Coordinates: 33.920682°N 118.327802°W

SpaceX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX

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The company's headquarters, located in

Hawthorne, California.

2.5 Flight operations2.5.1 New commercial-only launch site2.5.2 Crewed-mission leased launch site

3 NASA collaborations3.1 Commercial cargo contracts3.2 Commercial crew contracts3.3 "Red Dragon" Mars mission concept

4 Other contracts4.1 Launch market competition and pricing pressure

5 Commercial and government launch contracts summary6 Space vehicles

6.1 Falcon launch vehicles6.2 Dragon6.3 Other concepts under development

7 Rocket engines8 See also9 References10 External links

History

SpaceX was founded in June 2002 by Elon Musk; his vision was to builda simple and relatively inexpensive reusable rocket that would go intospace multiple times, similar to the turn around time capabilities thatcommercial airliners currently exhibit.

In 2001, Musk conceptualised "Mars Oasis"; a project to land aminiature experimental greenhouse on Mars, containing seeds withdehydrated gel, hydrating the gel and having plants grow on Martian soil,"so this would be the furthest that life’s ever traveled"[9] in an attempt toregain public interest in space exploration and increase the Budget ofNASA.[10][11][12] But Musk realized that even with a much larger spacebudget, travel to Mars would be prohibitively expensive and that afundamental breakthrough in rocket technology was needed.[12] InOctober 2001, Musk travelled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell (anaerospace supplies fixer), and Adeo Ressi (his best friend from college),to buy refurbished ICBMs (Dnepr-1) that could send the envisionedpayloads into space.[13] The group met with companies such asLavochkin and ISC Kosmotras. However, according to Cantrell, Muskwas seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of theRussian chief designers, and the group returned to the US empty-handed.[14] In February 2002, the groupreturned to Russia to look for three ICBMs, bringing along Mike Griffin, who had worked for the CIA’s venturecapital arm, In-Q-Tel; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and was just leaving Orbital Sciences Corporation, amaker of satellites and spacecraft. The group met again with Kosmotras, and were offered one rocket for US$8million. However, this was seen by Musk as too expensive; Musk consequently stormed out of the meeting. Onthe flight back from Moscow, Musk realized that he could start a company that could build the affordable


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SpaceX employees with the Dragon

capsule at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne,

California, February, 2015.

rockets he needed.[14] According to early Tesla and SpaceX investorSteve Jurvetson,[15] Musk calculated that the raw materials for building arocket actually were only 3 percent of the sales price of a rocket at thetime. By applying vertical integration—principally for cost reasons;[13]

around 85% of the entire Falcon/Dragon vehicle is producedin-house[16]— and the modular approach from software engineering(Falcon 9 uses 10 of the Merlin engines, which were tested on the singleengine Falcon 1, Falcon Heavy uses three Falcon 9 booster stages),SpaceX could cut launch price by a factor of ten and still enjoy a 70percent gross margin.[17] Another reason for vertical integration is thatMusk thinks reusable rockets cannot be built with components fromexisting suppliers, that all the other aerospace companies are buyingfrom as well. For example, SpaceX had to design a machine that couldfriction stir weld aluminium-lithium alloy for the airframe of the Falcon 9, because such a machine did not existanywhere in the world.[18]

In early 2002, Musk was seeking staff for his new space company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approachedrenowned rocket engineer Tom Mueller (now SpaceX's VP of Propulsion), Mueller agreed to work for Musk andSpaceX was born.[19] SpaceX was first headquartered in a 75,000 square feet warehouse in El Segundo,California. Musk decided SpaceX's first rocket would be named Falcon 1, a nod to Star Wars' MillenniumFalcon. Musk planned for Falcon 1's first launch to occur in November 2003, 15 months after the companystarted.[14]

In January 2005, SpaceX bought a 10% stake in Surrey Satellite Technology.[20]

By March 2006, Musk had invested US$100 million of his own money into the company.[21]

On August 4, 2008, SpaceX accepted a further $20 million investment from Founders Fund.[22] In early 2012,approximately two-thirds of the company was owned by its founder[23] and his 70 million shares were thenestimated to be worth $875 million on private markets,[24] which roughly valued SpaceX at $1.3 billion as ofFebruary 2012.[25] After the COTS 2+ flight in May 2012, the company private equity valuation nearly doubledto $2.4 billion.[26][27]

On 16 June 2009, SpaceX announced the opening of its Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department. Ithired former NASA astronaut Ken Bowersox to oversee the department as a vice president of the company.[28]

However, it has since been reported that the former astronaut subsequently left SpaceX in late 2011. No reasonwas given and no replacement in that position has been announced.[29]

In 2010, Musk's calculations convinced him that the colonization of Mars was possible.[30]

In 2012, an initial public offering (IPO) was perceived as possible by the end of 2013,[31] but then Musk statedin June 2013 that he planned to hold off any potential IPO until after the "Mars Colonial Transporter is flyingregularly,"[32] and this was reiterated in 2015 indicating that it would be many years before SpaceX wouldbecome a publicly traded company,[33][34] where Musk stated that "I just don’t want [SpaceX] to be controlledby some private equity firm that would milk it for near-term revenue"[35]

The company has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2002, growing from 160 employees in November 2005to more than 500 by July 2008, to over 1,100 in 2010,[36][37] 1800 in early 2012,[38] and 3000 by early 2013.[39]

By October 2013, the company had grown to 3,800 employees and contractors.[40]


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Achievements of SpaceX include:[41]

The first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit (28 September 2008)The first privately funded company to successfully launch (by Falcon 9) orbit and recover a spacecraft(Dragon) (9 December 2010)The first private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the International Space Station (25 May 2012)The first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (SES-8, 3 December 2013)The landing of a first stage orbital capable rocket (Falcon 9) (22 December 2015 1:40 UTC)

On 22 December 2015 at around 1:00 UTC SpaceX launched an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket from Cape CanaveralAir Force Station into low Earth orbit. After completing its primary burn, the first stage of the multistage rocketdetached from the second stage as usual. The first stage then fired some of its engines to send it back to CapeCanaveral, where it achieved the world's first successful landing of a rocket that was used for an orbital launch.The landing happened at around 1:40 UTC on December 22nd. Stage two successfully deployed elevencommunication satellites for Orbcomm.[42]

Funding

SpaceX is a privately funded space transportation company.[43] It developed its first launch vehicle—Falcon1—and three rocket engines—Merlin, Kestrel, and Draco—completely with private capital. SpaceX contractedwith the US government for a portion of the development funding for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which uses amodified version of the Merlin rocket engine.[43] SpaceX is developing the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle,[44] theRaptor methane-fueled rocket engine,[45] and a set of reusable launch vehicle technologies with privatecapital.[46]

As of May 2012, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $1 billion in its first ten years ofoperation. Of this, private equity provided about $200M, with Musk investing approximately $100M and otherinvestors having put in about $100M (Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, ...).[47] The remainder has comefrom progress payments on long-term launch contracts and development contracts. As of April 2012, NASA hadput in about $400–500M of this amount, with most of that as progress payments on launch contracts.[48] ByMay 2012, SpaceX had contracts for 40 launch missions, and each of those contracts provide down payments atcontract signing, plus many are paying progress payments as launch vehicle components are built in advance ofmission launch, driven in part by US accounting rules for recognizing long-term revenue.[48]

In August 2012, SpaceX signed a large development contract with NASA to design and develop a crew-carryingspace capsule for the "next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities", in order to re-enable the launchof astronauts from U.S. soil by 2017. Two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation, receivedsimilar development contracts. Advances made by all three companies under Space Act Agreements throughNASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are intended to ultimately lead to theavailability of commercial human spaceflight services for both government and commercial customers. As partof this agreement, SpaceX was awarded a contract worth up to $440 million for contract deliverables between2012 and May 2014.[49][50]

At year-end 2012, SpaceX had over 40 launches on its manifest representing about $4 billion in contractrevenue—with many of those contracts already making progress payments to SpaceX—with both commercialand government (NASA/DOD) customers.[51] As of December 2013, SpaceX has a total of 50 future launchesunder contract, two-thirds of them are for commercial customers.[52][53] In late 2013, space industry mediabegan to comment on the phenomenon that SpaceX prices are undercutting the major competitors in thecommercial commsat launch market—the Ariane 5 and Proton-M[54]—at which time SpaceX had at least 10


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further geostationary orbit flights on its books.[53]

In January 2015, SpaceX raised $1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity, in exchange for 8.333% of thecompany, establishing the company valuation at approximately $12 billion. Google and Fidelity joined the thencurrent investorship group of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founders Fund, Valor Equity Partners and Capricorn.[55][56] Although the investment was thought to be related to SpaceX's launch of a satellite construction businessand global satellite internet service effort,[57] Gwynne Shotwell said in March 2015 that the investment was notspecifically for the global internet project.[58] Google had been searching for a satellite internet partner since thesplit with O3b Networks and OneWeb.[59]

Goals

Musk has stated that one of his goals is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space, ultimately by afactor of ten.[60] The company plans in 2004 called for "development of a heavy lift product and even a super-heavy, if there is customer demand" with each size increase resulting in a significant decrease in cost per poundto orbit. CEO Elon Musk said: "I believe $500 per pound ($1,100/kg) or less is very achievable."[61]

He stated in a 2011 interview that he hopes to send humans to Mars' surface within 10–20 years.[62] In June2013, Musk used the descriptor Mars Colonial Transporter to refer to the privately funded development projectto design and build a spaceflight system of rocket engines, launch vehicles and space capsules to transporthumans to Mars and return to Earth.[32] In March 2014, COO Gwynne Shotwell said that once the FalconHeavy and Dragon v2 crew version are flying, the focus for the company engineering team will be ondeveloping the technology to support the transport infrastructure necessary for Mars missions.[63] According toSteve Jurvetson, Musk believes that by 2035 at the latest, there will be thousands of rockets flying a millionpeople to Mars, in order to enable a self-sustaining human colony.[64]

SpaceX has on occasion developed new engineering development technologies to enable it to pursue its variousgoals. In 2015, public sources revealed that SpaceX is developing their own computational fluid dynamics(CFD) software to improve the simulation capability of evaluating rocket engine combustion design.[65]

In June 2015 the company asked the federal government for permission to begin testing for a project that aimsto build a constellation of 4000 satellites capable of beaming the Internet to the entire globe, including remoteregions which currently do not have internet access.[66][67]

Musk's long term vision for the company is the development of technology and resources suitable for humancolonization on Mars. He has expressed his interest in someday traveling to the planet. As he has stated, "I'd liketo die on Mars, just not on impact."[68]

Headquarters and rocket manufacturing plant

SpaceX Headquarters is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne at 1 Rocket Road, Hawthorne,California. The large, three story facility, originally built by Northrop Corporation to build Boeing 747fuselages,[69] houses SpaceX's office space, mission control, and vehicle factory. The area has one of the largestconcentrations of aerospace headquarters, facilities, and/or subsidiaries in the U.S., including Boeing/McDonnellDouglas main satellite building campuses, Raytheon, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Lockheed Martin,BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and AECOM, etc., with a large pool of aerospace engineers and recent


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Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket cores under

construction at the SpaceX Hawthorne

facility, November 2014.

college engineering graduates.[70]

SpaceX utilizes a high degree of vertical integration in the production ofits rockets and rocket engines.[13] Unusual for the aerospace industry,SpaceX builds its rocket engines, rocket stages, spacecraft, principalavionics and all software in-house in their Hawthorne facility.Nevertheless, SpaceX still has over 3000 suppliers with some 1100 ofthose delivering to SpaceX nearly weekly.[71]

Satellite development facility

In January 2015, SpaceX announced it would be entering the satelliteproduction business and global satellite internet business. The satellitefactory would be located in Seattle, Washington. The office will initially have approximately 60 engineers, withthe potential to grow to 1000 over several years. The internet service would use a satellite constellation of 4000communications satellites in 1100 km orbits, and start operations in 2020. The goal of the business is to increaseprofitability and cashflow, to allow SpaceX to build its Mars colony.[33]

Regional offices

SpaceX has regional offices in Houston, Texas; Chantilly, Virginia; and Washington, D.C.[72] and opened anoffice in the Seattle region in 2014 from which it is heavily recruiting engineers and software developers.[73]

Test and post-flight disassembly facilities

SpaceX has two rocket test facilities: the SpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texasand a leased VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing) test facility at Spaceport America in southern NewMexico. All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on rocket test stands, and low-altitude VTVL flight testing of theFalcon 9 Grasshopper v1.0 and F9R Dev1 test vehicles were done at McGregor. High-altitude, high-velocityflight testing of the followon F9R Dev2 test vehicle are planned to begin at Spaceport America in 2015. Inaddition, the McGregor facility is used for post-flight disassembly and defueling of the Dragon spacecraft.

The company purchased the McGregor, Texas, testing facilities of defunct Beal Aerospace, where it refitted thelargest test stand at the facilities for Falcon 9 engine testing. SpaceX has made a number of improvements to thefacility since purchase, and has also extended the size of the facility by purchasing several pieces of adjacentfarmland. In 2011, the company announced plans to upgrade the facility for launch testing a VTVL rocket,[74]

and then constructed a half-acre concrete launch facility in 2012 to support the Grasshopper test flightprogram.[75]

SpaceX builds all of its rocket engines and thrusters at its main facility in Hawthorne, California where thelargest SpaceX campus is located, and where most of the high-technology components are engineered. A testfacility in McGregor, TX is one of the secondary locations where the company tests each new engine off of theassembly line, as well as those being developed for future missions to orbit and beyond"[76] before each one canbe used on a flight mission. As of October 2012, the McGregor facility has seven test stands that are operated"18 hours a day, six days a week"[76] and is building more test stands because production is ramping up and thecompany has a large manifest in the next several years.

The Dragon spacecraft, following use on a space mission, splashdown and recovery, are shipped to McGregorfor de-fueling, cleanup, and refurbishment for potential reuse in future flight missions.


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SpaceX McGregor engine test bunker,

September 2012

The first Falcon 1 at Vandenberg AFB.

This vehicle was removed from VAFB

due to delays and eventually launched

from Kwajalein.

In May 2013, SpaceX announced that the high-altitude, high-velocityflight test program of the F9R Development vehicles—the secondgeneration of the SpaceX experimental VTVL suborbital technology-demonstrator—would be conducted at Spaceport America near LasCruces, New Mexico. SpaceX signed a three-year lease with thespaceport[77][78] and has constructed a 30 by 30 metres (98 ft × 98 ft)pad at Spaceport America, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) southwest of thespaceport's main campus. It will lease the pad for US$6,600 per monthplus US$25,000 per Grasshopper flight. The spaceport administratorexpects SpaceX to be operational at the Spaceport sometime betweenOctober 2013 and February 2014, and that is the time that the leasepayments will begin.[78][79]

Flight operations

SpaceX currently uses two orbital launch sites—Cape Canaveral AirForce Station Space Launch Complex 40 and Vandenberg Air ForceBase, Space Launch Complex 4—and have announced plans for twomore. SpaceX has indicated that they see a niche for each of the fourorbital facilities and that they have sufficient launch business to fill eachpad.[80] In addition, SpaceX utilizes two facilities for suborbital launchoperations and flight tests, the SpaceX Rocket Development and TestFacility in McGregor, Texas and a high-altitude flight test facility atSpaceport America in New Mexico.

Cape Canaveral space launch complex 40 (SLC-40) was used to launchFalcon 9 into low-earth and geostationary orbits, while Vandenberg AFBSLC-4E was used for payloads to polar orbits. The Vandenberg site hasalso been intended for Falcon Heavy launches, potentially starting in2015.[81] As part of SpaceX's booster reusability program, the former Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral,now renamed Landing Zone 1, has been designated for use for Falcon 9 first-stage booster landings.

All Falcon 1 launches took place at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, Omelek Island,Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands (northern Pacific Ocean). SpaceX abandoned Omelek when the Falcon 1 wasretired.

New commercial-only launch site

After considering potential locations including Alaska, California, Florida,[82] Texas, Virginia,[83] Georgia,[84]

and Puerto Rico,[85] on August 4, 2014 Texas Governor Rick Perry and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announcedSpaceX selected a location near Brownsville, Texas for a new commercial-only launch facility.[86]

The proposed location for the new commercial-mission-only spaceport is in south Texas near Brownsville.[87]

The FAA released the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Texas facility in April 2013, and"found that 'no impacts would occur' that would force the Federal Aviation Administration to deny SpaceX apermit for rocket operations,"[88][88] and issued the permit in July 2014.[89] SpaceX started construction on thenew launch facility in 2014 with production ramping up in the latter half of 2015,[90] with the first launches fromthe facility no earlier than 2016.[91] Real estate packages at the location have been named by SpaceX withnames based on the theme "Mars Crossing".[92][93]


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Landing Zone 1 sign at the former

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Complex 13

The COTS 2 Dragon is berthed to the

ISS by Canadarm2.

Crewed-mission leased launch site

As of December 2013, SpaceX has entered negotiations to lease LaunchComplex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, followingNASA's decision to lease the unused complex out as part of a bid toreduce annual operation and maintenance costs.[94] The SpaceX bid isfor exclusive use of the launch complex to support their future crewedmissions. A competing bid for commercial use of the launch complexwas submitted by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, who was bidding for a sharednon-exclusive use of the complex such that the launchpad can interfacewith multiple vehicles, and costs can be shared over the long term. Onepotential shared user in the Blue Origin notional plan was United LaunchAlliance.[95]

Commercial cargo contracts

On 18 August 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had won a NASACommercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract todemonstrate cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS) witha possible option for crew transport.[96] This contract, designed byNASA to provide "seed money" for developing new boosters, paidSpaceX $278 million to develop the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, withincentive payments paid at milestones culminating in threedemonstration launches.[97] In December 2008 SpaceX and OrbitalSciences Corporation each won a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS)contract. That of SpaceX is for at least 12 missions for $1.6 billion tocarry supplies and cargo to and from the ISS.[98] On 9 December 2010,the launch of the COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the firstprivately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover aspacecraft.

The original NASA contract called for the COTS Demo Flight 1 to occur the second quarter of 2008;[99] thisflight was delayed several times, occurring at 15:43 UTC on 8 December 2010.[100] Dragon was successfullydeployed into orbit, circling the Earth twice, and then made a controlled reentry burn that put it on target for asplashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.[101] With Dragon's safe recovery, SpaceX become thefirst private company to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft; prior to this mission, only government agencieshad been able to recover orbital spacecraft.[101]

According to the original schedule, in COTS Demo Flight 2 the Dragon spacecraft would make its second flightand would rendezvous with the ISS but not be berthed. The third flight would see Dragon being berthed to theISS.[99] However, after the success of the first mission, NASA conditionally agreed on 15 July 2011 that the twoflights would be combined, and the next Dragon mission was to have Dragon being berthed with the ISS.[102] On9 December 2011, NASA formally approved the merger of the COTS 2 and 3 missions into the COTS 2 flight,but yet again delayed the tentative launch date by another month to 7 February 2012.[103] However, on 16January 2012, SpaceX announced it needed more time for engineering tests, and postponed the launch dateagain, with no replacement date initially announced.[104] On 19 May at approximately 4:55AM EDT the launch


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for the COTS 2+ mission was automatically aborted when the pressure in one of the engine chambers was higherthan expected. The COTS Demo Flight 2 launch was postponed to 22 May 2012, at which point it succeeded inputting the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. Several days later, the Dragon capsule successfully berthed with theInternational Space Station, marking the first time that a private spacecraft had accomplished this feat.[105][106]

Commercial crew contracts

SpaceX is planning a crewed Dragon/Falcon 9 flight in future years when it expects to have a fully certified,human-rated launch escape system incorporated into the spacecraft.[107] NASA's Commercial CrewDevelopment (CCDev) program intends to develop commercially operated manned spacecraft that are capableof delivering crew to the ISS. SpaceX did not participate during the first round, however during the secondround of the program NASA awarded SpaceX with a contract worth $75 million to further develop their launchescape system, test a crew accommodations mock-up and to further progress the Falcon 9/Dragon crewtransportation design.[108][109] SpaceX later submitted a proposal for the third round of the CCDev programwhich became Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap).[110]

On 3 August 2012, NASA announced new agreements with SpaceX and two other companies to design anddevelop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S.soil in the next five years. Advances made by these companies under newly signed Space Act Agreementsthrough the agency's CCiCap initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial humanspaceflight services for government and commercial customers. As part of this agreement, SpaceX was awarded$440 million, to continue development and testing of its Dragon V2 spacecraft.[111]

On 16 September 2014, NASA chose SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies that will be funded to developsystems to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station. SpaceX won $2.6B to complete and certifyDragon V2 by 2017. (Boeing won $4.2B to complete and certify their CST-100.) The contracts include at leastone crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard. Once Crew Dragon achieves NASAcertification, the contract requires SpaceX to conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to thespace station.[112]

"Red Dragon" Mars mission concept

In addition to SpaceX's privately funded plans for an eventual Mars mission, as of July 2011 NASA AmesResearch Center had developed a concept for a low-cost Mars mission that would use Falcon Heavy as thelaunch vehicle and trans-Martian injection vehicle, and the Dragon capsule to enter the Martian atmosphere.The concept, called 'Red Dragon', would be proposed for funding in 2012/2013 as a NASA Discovery mission,for launch in 2018 and arrival at Mars several months later. The science objectives of the mission would be tolook for evidence of life — detecting "molecules that are proof of life, like DNA or perchlorate reductase ...proof of life through biomolecules. ... Red Dragon would drill 1.0 meter (3.3 ft) or so underground, in an effortto sample reservoirs of water ice known to lurk under the red dirt." The mission cost was projected to be lessthan $425,000,000, not including the launch cost.[113]

On 2 May 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 allowthe Air Force to purchase up to $100 million worth of launches from the company.[114] On 22 April 2008, NASAannounced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for Falcon 1 and Falcon 9


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launches. The contract will be worth up to $1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded. Thecontract covers launch services ordered by 30 June 2010, for launches through December 2012.[115] Muskstated in the same 2008 announcement that SpaceX has sold 14 contracts for flights on the various Falconvehicles.[115]

In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the United States Department ofDefense. "The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EvolvedExpendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)-class missions:" Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and SpaceTest Program 2 (STP-2), to be launched in 2014 and 2015, respectively. DSCOVR was launched on a Falcon 9launch vehicle while STP-2 will be launched on a Falcon Heavy.[116]

SpaceX announced on 15 March 2010 that it would launch SES-8, a medium-sized communications satellite forSES, on a Falcon 9 vehicle, and it was successfully launched on 3 December 2013.[117] SES was SpaceX's firstcontract for a geostationary communications satellite launch.[53][117] In June 2010, SpaceX was awarded thelargest-ever commercial space launch contract, worth $492 million, to launch Iridium satellites using Falcon 9rockets.[118]

On 26 May 2015, the United States Air Force announced that the Falcon 9 was certified for launching "nationalsecurity space missions," which allows SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloadsclassified as national security. The first anticipated contract available to SpaceX will be in June 2015, with theGPS III satellite built by Lockheed Martin.[119] According to Fox News, United Launch Alliance is currently theonly provider other than SpaceX equipped and certified to launch national security payloads.[120] In a statement,United Launch Alliance responded to the newly certified company “We welcome today’s announcement andlook forward to competing with SpaceX and other new entrants," and followed by writing "The fact is, we couldnot be more passionate and proud of our work, our people and our record of success."[120][121]

On 14 September 2015, SpaceX announced in a press release two new orders:[122]

Launch of a communications satellite for HISPASAT on a Falcon 9Launch of Saudi Arabian Arabsat 6A communications satellite on a Falcon Heavy

In the press release, SpaceX also stated they currently have over 60 missions on manifest representing over $7Bunder contract.

Launch market competition and pricing pressure

SpaceX's low launch prices (less than $2,500 per pound to orbit for Falcon 9 v1.1 and $1,000 for FalconHeavy),[123] especially for communication satellites flying to geostationary (GTO) orbit, have resulted in marketpressure on its competitors to lower their own prices. The communications satellites launch market had beendominated in the years preceding 2013 by Europe's Arianespace (flying Ariane 5) and International LaunchServices (ILS) (flying Russia's Proton vehicle).[124] By late 2013, with a published price of US$56.5 million perlaunch to low Earth orbit, "Falcon 9 rockets [were] already the cheapest in the industry. Reusable Falcon 9scould drop the price by an order of magnitude, sparking more space-based enterprise, which in turn would dropthe cost of access to space still further through economies of scale."[125]

SpaceX capabilities and prices are affecting the global market considerably. Arianespace requested in early2014 that European governments provide additional subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX.[126][127]

European satellite operators are pushing the ESA to reduce Ariane 5 and the future Ariane 6 rocket launchprices as a result of competition from SpaceX. According to one Arianespace managing director, "It's quite clear


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there's a very significant challenge coming from SpaceX," he said. "Therefore things have to change ... and thewhole European industry is being restructured, consolidated, rationalised and streamlined."[128]

By November 2014, space media reported that SpaceX had "already begun to take market share" fromArianespace.[129] In 2014, Falcon 9 GTO mission pricing was approximately US$15 million less than a launch ona Chinese Long March 3B.[130] However, the Chinese Government and the Great Wall Industry company—which markets the Long March for commsat missions—made a policy decision to maintain commsat launchprices at approximately US$70 million.[131] SpaceX capabilities and lower launch prices have also begun toaffect the market for launch of US military payloads, where for nearly a decade the large US launch providerUnited Launch Alliance (ULA) had faced no competition for the military launches.[132] In October 2014 ULAannounced a major restructuring of processes and workforce in order to decrease launch costs by half, in part asa result of competition from SpaceX.[133][134] In May 2015, ULA stated that it would go out of business unless itwon commercial and civil satellite launch orders to offset an expected slump in U.S. military and spylaunches.[135] Jean Botti, Director of innovation for Airbus (which makes the Ariane 5) warned that "those whodon't take Elon Musk seriously will have a lot to worry about."[136]

When the final numbers were in for 2014, SpaceX had won nine contracts out of 20 that were competedworldwide in 2014 at commercial launch service providers.[137] This was the first year in some time that nocommercial launches were booked on the Russian (Proton) and Russian-Ukrainian (Zenit) launch serviceproviders.[137] SpaceX launched their first communication satellite to geosynchronous orbit only in late 2013.

SpaceX has publicly indicated that if they are successful with developing the reusable technology, launch pricesin the US$5 to 7 million range for the reusable Falcon 9 are possible.[138]

As of January 2013, SpaceX has a purely commercial launch manifest of "23 missions scheduled over the next 4years, exclusive of US government flights, Dragonlab flights and the anticipated demo flight for FalconHeavy"—of a total of 40 flights scheduled through 2017."[139]

On 3 December 2013 SpaceX launched its first satellite into geostationary orbit, SES-8, entering the majorcommercial launch market.[53] SpaceX prices undercut its major competitors, the Ariane 5 and Proton, in thismarket,[54] and SpaceX has at least 10 further geostationary orbit flights on its books.[53] Moreover, SpaceXprices for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are much lower than the projected prices for the new Ariane 5 MEupgrade and its Ariane 6 successor, projected to be available in 2018 and 2021, respectively.[140] As ofDecember 2013, SpaceX has a total of 50 future launches under contract; two-thirds of them are for commercialcustomers.[52]

SpaceX is, however, making a concerted effort to be able to make competitive bids for US military launches ofEELV-class payloads. The government certified the Falcon 9 v1.1 for national security launches in May2015,[141] and the earliest EELV launches that could be contracted with SpaceX as of March 2014 would be inlate 2016.[142]

SpaceX is currently manufacturing two main space launch vehicles: the large Evolved Expendable LaunchVehicle (EELV)-class Falcon 9,[143] which flew successfully into orbit on its maiden launch on 4 June 2010[144]


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SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Dragon

spacecraft, lifts off during the COTS Demo Flight

1 on 8 December 2010.

The Falcon 1 prototype at SpaceX's

assembly facilities.

From left to right, Falcon 1, Falcon 9 v1.0, three

versions of Falcon 9 v1.1, and two versions of

Falcon Heavy.

and the super-heavy class Falcon Heavy, which is scheduled tomake its first flight in early 2016. SpaceX also manufacturesthe Dragon, a pressurized orbital spacecraft that is launched ontop of a Falcon 9 booster to carry cargo to low-Earth orbit, andthe follow-on Dragon V2 spacecraft, currently in the processof being human-rated through a variety of design reviews andflight tests that began in 2014.[145][146]

It formerly built and flew the Falcon 1 launch vehicle, whichmade its first successful flight on 28 September 2008,[144][147]

A Falcon 5 and Falcon 9 Air launcher were also planned, butdevelopment was stopped on both vehicles before hardwarewas manufactured, in favor of pursuing development on otherlaunch vehicles.[148]

Falcon launch vehicles

SpaceX has flown, or is developing, several orbital launch vehicles: theFalcon 1, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy. As of May 2015, the Falcon 9v1.1 is in active use and the Falcon Heavy is under development.

The Falcon 1 was asmall rocket capableof placing severalhundred kilogramsinto low earthorbit.[144] Itfunctioned as anearly test-bed fordeveloping conceptsand components for the larger Falcon 9.[144] Falcon 1 madefive flights in 2006–2009. On 28 September 2008, theFalcon 1 succeeded in reaching orbit on its fourth attempt,becoming the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket todo so.[149] The Falcon 1 carried its first successful

commercial payload, RazakSAT, into orbit on 13 July 2009, on its fifth launch.[150] SpaceX has now retired theFalcon 1 and transferred Falcon 1 class payloads to be secondary payloads on the Falcon 9, which proved to bemore efficient.

Falcon 1eFalcon 5

The Falcon 9 is an EELV-class medium-lift vehicle capable of delivering up to 10,450 kilograms (23,000 lb) toorbit, and is intended to compete with the Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets, as well as other launch providersaround the world. It has nine Merlin engines in its first stage.[151] The Falcon 9 rocket successfully reached orbiton its first attempt in June 2010. The second flight for the Falcon 9 vehicle was the COTS Demo Flight 1 on 8December 2010, the first launch under the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) contract,and was similarly successful.[115] Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on 22 May 2012, and was the


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The Dragon spacecraft approaching the

ISS

The interior of the COTS 2 Dragon

first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station.[152] Further launches havecontinued through 2013-15 with a total of 19 successful launches and one failure.

Falcon 9 AirFalcon 9 v1.0Falcon 9 v1.1Grasshopper, F9R Dev1, and F9R Dev2 prototype VTVL test vehicles

The Falcon Heavy began development as a heavy-lift configuration using a cluster of three Falcon 9 first stagecores with a total 27 Merlin 1D engines and propellant crossfeed in 2011.[153][154] [155] SpaceX is aiming for thefirst demonstration flight of the Falcon Heavy in early 2016.[156]

Dragon

In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercialspace program through the end of the decade.[157] The Dragonspacecraft is intended to carry up to seven astronauts into orbit andbeyond.[158] It is a conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule, which iscapable of carrying 7 people or a mixture of personnel and cargo to andfrom low Earth orbit.[158] It is launched atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle.The spacecraft's nosecone is jettisoned shortly after launch in the cargoversion, but is expected to be kept during the full flight of the crewedversion.

In 2006, NASA announced that the company was one of two selected toprovide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the ISSunder the COTS program.[159] SpaceX demonstrated cargo resupply andeventually crew transportation services using the Dragon.[152] NASA'soriginal plan called for COTS demonstration flights between 2008 and2010.[160][161] SpaceX was not able to meet that schedule, but eventuallybegan test-flights in 2010.

The first flight of a Dragon structural test article took place 4 June 2010,from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station duringthe maiden flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle; the mock-up Dragonlacked avionics, heat shield, and other key elements normally required ofa fully operational spacecraft but contained all the necessarycharacteristics to validate the flight performance of the launchvehicle.[162] An operational Dragon spacecraft was launched on 8 December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1,the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its missionobjectives.[145] In 2012, Dragon began conducting regular resupply services to the ISS with a contract for 12flights.

In 2009 and 2010, Musk suggested on several occasions that plans for a human-rated variant of Dragon wereproceeding and had a 2- to 3-year time line to completion.[163][164] On 18 April 2011, NASA issued a $75 millioncontract, as part of its second-round commercial crew development (CCDev) program, for SpaceX to developan integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle tothe ISS.[165] This Space Act Agreement runs from April 2011 until May 2012, when the next round of contractsare to be awarded.[165] NASA approved the technical plans for the system in October 2011, and SpaceX began


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Comparison of rocket core diameters

for SpaceX launch vehicles: (from left)

Falcon 9 v1.0 (2010), Falcon 9 v1.1

(2013), and the 10-meter diameter,

9-Raptor, first-stage booster for the

Mars Colonial Transporter.

building prototype hardware.[107]

In 2012, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.[152]

SpaceX delivered cargo to the ISS in March 2013 and again in April 2014.[166]

SpaceX plans to launch its first crew occupied spacecraft, its "Dragon", in a test flight by 2017.[167] Elon Muskhas stated the personal goal of eventually enabling human exploration and settlement of Mars.[62]

Other concepts under development

Several modifications or additions to the Falcon rocket family are currently being developed by SpaceX. Theseinclude three vehicles that further technology development objectives toward reusable launch systems: theGrasshopper test vehicle and the commercial launch vehicles Reusable Falcon 9 and Reusable Falcon Heavy.

DragonFly is a test vehicle to develop propulsive and propulsive-assist landing technologies in a series oflow-altitude flight tests planned to be conducted in 2015-2016.[168]

A major goal of SpaceX has been to develop a rapidly reusable launch system. As of March 2013, the publiclyannounced aspects of this technology development effort include an active test campaign of the low-altitude,low-speed Grasshopper vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) technology demonstrator rocket,.[74][75][169]

and a high-altitude, high-speed Falcon 9 post-mission booster return test campaign where—beginning inmid-2013, with the sixth overall flight of Falcon 9—every first stage will be instrumented and equipped as acontrolled descent test vehicle to accomplish propulsive-return over-water tests.[170] SpaceX COO GwynneShotwell said at the Singapore Satellite Industry Forum in summer 2013 "If we get this [reusable technology]right, and we’re trying very hard to get this right, we’re looking at launches to be in the US$5 to 7 million range,which would really change things dramatically."[138]

SpaceX has announced the high-level description of a futuresuper-heavy lift launch vehicle that will consist of one or three 10-meter(33 ft)-diameter cores and use nine Raptor LOX/methane engines topower each core.[171][172][173] The MCT launch vehicle is also intendedto be reusable and will produce approximately 40 or 120 meganewtons(9,000,000 or 27,000,000 lbf) of thrust at liftoff.[172] Development of theMars Colonial Transporter and its super-heavy launch vehicle will be themajor focus of SpaceX once Falcon Heavy and DragonCrew are flyingregularly.[173]

Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, the company has developed threefamilies of rocket engines — Merlin and Kestrel for launch vehiclepropulsion, and the Draco RCS control thrusters. SpaceX is currently developing two further rocket engines:SuperDraco and Raptor.

Merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by SpaceX for use on its Falcon rocket family of launch vehicles.Merlin engines use LOX and RP-1 as propellants in a gas-generator power cycle. The Merlin engine wasoriginally designed for sea recovery and reuse. The injector at the heart of Merlin is of the pintle type that wasfirst used in the Apollo Program for the lunar module landing engine. Propellants are fed via a single shaft, dualimpeller turbo-pump. Kestrel is a LOX/RP-1 pressure-fed rocket engine, and was used as the Falcon 1 rocket's


14 of 22 27/12/2015 4:13 AM

second stage main engine. It was built around the same pintle architecture as SpaceX's Merlin engine but doesnot have a turbo-pump, and is fed only by tank pressure. Its nozzle was ablatively cooled in the chamber andthroat and radiatively cooled, and is fabricated from a high strength niobium alloy.

Draco are hypergolic liquid-propellant rocket engines that utilize a mixture of monomethyl hydrazine fuel andnitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. Each Draco thruster generates 400 newtons (90 lbf) of thrust.[174] They are used asreaction control system (RCS) thrusters on both the Dragon spacecraft and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle second-stage.[175] SuperDraco are a much more powerful version of the Draco thrusters, which will be initially used aslaunch escape system engines on the version 2 Dragon spacecraft, Dragon V2.

SpaceX has signaled on multiple occasions that it is interested in developing much larger engines than it hasdone to date. A conceptual plan for the Raptor project was first unveiled in a June 2009 AIAA presentation.[176]

In November 2012, Musk announced a new direction for propulsion side of the company: developingLOX/methane rocket engines for launch vehicle main and upper stages.[177] The Raptor LOX/methane enginewill use the more efficient staged combustion cycle,[178] a departure from the "'open cycle' gas generator cyclesystem and LOX/RP-1 propellants that the current Merlin 1 engine series uses."[178] The rocket would be morepowerful than previously released publicly, with over 1,000,000 lbf (4,400 kN) of thrust.[171] Raptor enginecomponent-level testing will begin in 2014.[179] The Raptor engine will likely be the first in a family ofmethane-based engines SpaceX intends to build.[179]

Autonomous spaceport drone shipColonization of MarsHuman outpostList of Falcon 9 missionsManned mission to MarsMars to Stay

Orbital Sciences CorporationPrivate spaceflightSpace explorationTerraforming of MarsTourism on MoonUnited Launch Alliance

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Official website (http://www.spacex.com)Kwajalein Atoll and Rockets (http://kwajrockets.blogspot.com/)(Candid and highly unofficial blog by Elon Musk's brother Kimbal,with on-site pictures and reporting.)Maiden flight slide presentation (http://www.spacex.com/MAIDENFLIGHTB27.pdf) PDF

Michael Belfiore's notes from SpaceX pre-launch conference in2005 (http://michaelbelfiore.com/blog/2005/11/spacex-prelaunch-conference.html)Video of Elon Musk discussing his interest in enabling human missions to Mars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn7obiurdxg) on YouTube

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