Hi, it’s Katrina!
Since being founded by billionaire Elon Musk in 2002, SpaceX has made several historical
achievements.
From getting satellites into space to creating a space taxi here are 8 amazing things SpaceX
has done, and there is likely much more to come!
8.
Falcon 1
SpaceX’s most notable accomplishments date back to 2008 with the successful launch of
the Falcon 1, a privately-funded $90 million liquid fuel rocket.
In September of that year, the Falcon 1 launch vehicle became the first privately funded
and developed liquid-propelled carrier rocket to reach Earth orbit, finally succeeding on
its fourth attempt with a dummy payload.
Altogether, Falcon 1 was launched five times.
In July 2009, the Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to
deliver a commercial satellite to Earth orbit.
It carried the Malaysian RazakSAT satellite which became the Falcon 1’s first and only
commercial contract launch.
All five of the Falcon 1 flights were launched from the Reagan Test Site on Omelek Island,
which is part of Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The Falcon 1 was retired after its fifth launch and was succeeded by the Falcon 9.
7.
SpaceX Grasshopper
As part of its efforts to develop a rapidly reusable rocket, SpaceX built the Grasshopper,
a 10-story reusable rocket prototype.
Put simply, Grasshopper was the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 project which I will
tell you more about in a bit.
First announced in 2011, the Grasshopper went on for 2 years and was part of the bigger
vision of being able to create a reusable system that would fly cargo and people to
space, and then back again.
Traditionally rockets are considered “throwaway items” and either burn up or become space
junk.
The vertical-takeoff-and-landing prototype was tested multiple times to try to get a
rocket to land on land (as opposed to water for now).
Test flights began with a simple, six-foot (1.8 meter) jump up and down.
Following its first test flight, Grasshopper completed progressively higher hops and pinpoint
landings.
On its second test flight in November 2012, the rocket traveled 18 feet (5.5 meters) into
the air.
Then, in December of that year, Grasshopper went over 130 feet (39.6 meters) high.
The rocket truly proved its capabilities over several test flights throughout 2013.
On various occasions, Grasshopper traveled several hundred feet into the air.
In April 2013, it reached 820 feet (250 meters) high.
It also demonstrated the ability to combat wind gusts and move sideways through the air
to its target.
The Grasshopper’s most successful test flight in October 2013 saw a height of 2,441 feet
(744 meters).
The flight lasted 79 seconds total and made a flawless takeoff and landing.
After that flight, SpaceX announced the retirement of the Grasshopper program and their intentions
to focus their resources on other projects, namely the Falcon 9 rocket.
6.
Falcon 9
As promised!
One huge mission of SpaceX is the development of fully and rapidly reusable rockets.
Building a rocket is where the bulk of the launch costs associated with it are incurred,
because most rockets are expendable.
Designing a reusable rocket will help reduce the costs associated with traveling into space,
hopefully eventually assisting with the goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
SpaceX partially achieved this objective with the development of the Falcon 9, which is
the first orbital class rocket capable of reflight.
In other words, the Falcon 9 is partially reusable - the rocket’s first stage can
reenter the atmosphere and be reflown.
The Falcon 9 was designed with maximum safety in mind and is equipped with nine first-stage
Merlin engines.
Even in the event of an engine shutdown, it can safely complete its mission.
In 2012, the Falcon 9 delivered the Dragon spacecraft into orbit for connection with
the International Space Station.
This made SpaceX the first commercial company to visit the station - an historical achievement.
The Falcon 9 has made numerous visits to space since then, delivering cargo to and from the
International Space Station for NASA, as well as carrying satellites into orbit.
Both the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule were designed to eventually carry humans into
space - a goal that SpaceX and NASA are working toward together.
To put things into perspective, each new commercial airliner costs about the same as the Falcon
9 did to build.
Unlike rockets, however, the average commercial airliner is used for tens of thousands of
flights over its lifetime.
Most rockets are designed to burn up upon reentry into the atmosphere, but SpaceX rockets
can safely land and refly.
By developing rapidly reusable space launch vehicles, SpaceX claims that the cost of space
travel can potentially be reduced by a hundredfold.
5.
First Rocket Booster Landing
In keeping with its goal of rocket reusability, SpaceX began attempting rocket booster landings
in early 2015 with its Falcon 9 rocket boosters.
The booster slammed into a drone ship and erupted into flames following the first landing
attempt in January of that year.
A second attempt was made in April and was nearly successful, but tipped over and exploded.
SpaceX’s first successful rocket booster landing occurred on its original launch pad
at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in December 2015.
A successful sea landing on a drone ship was executed after three more tries.
Between the first successful rocket booster landing at sea and the maiden launch of the
Falcon Heavy, which I’ll discuss next, there were 20 successful landings and just one failure.
The company’s next rocket booster landing goal would be to safely descend the Falcon
Heavy’s rocket boosters back to Earth.
4.
Falcon Heavy
The Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lift launch vehicle.
By a factor of two, it’s the most powerful operational rocket in the world.
It has the highest payload capacity of any launch vehicle that is currently operational
and the second-highest capacity of any rocket that has ever reached orbit.
The Saturn V, which was last flown in 1973, was the only rocket to ever deliver more payload
to orbit.
Like the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy is designed to be partially reusable.
Altogether, its first stage is equipped with 27 Merlin engines - three times as many as
that of the Falcon 9.
These engines generate five million pounds of thrust at takeoff, equating to about 18
747’s.
Originally, the Falcon Heavy’s maiden launch was tentatively planned for 2013.
However, due partially to the failure of the CRS-7 rocket in June 2015, SpaceX rescheduled
the Falcon Heavy’s maiden flight for “no earlier than” April 2016.
In early 2016, however, the launch was postponed yet again to later in the year.
The delays continued on into 2018.
Finally, after several years of delays, the Falcon Heavy’s maiden launch occurred on
February 6, 2018.
As its dummy payload, the rocket carried a Tesla Roadster belonging to billionaire Elon
Musk, the founder of SpaceX.
A second successful flight occurred in April of this year, delivering an Arab League-owned
satellite called the Arabsat-6A.
In June, the Falcon Heavy launched a payload of 25 small aircraft for STP-2, a US Department
of Defense Space Test Program.
The Falcon Heavy was designed to carry humans outside low Earth orbit, but so far, Elon
Musk has not applied for a human-rating certification, which would permit the rocket to carry NASA
astronauts.
SpaceX hopes to eventually use the Falcon Heavy for crewed missions to the moon and
Mars.
3.
Landing the 3 Falcon Heavy Rocket Boosters
On the Falcon Heavy’s second voyage in April of this year, SpaceX managed to land all three
of its rocket boosters for the first time.
The rocket’s two outer cores landed on SpaceX’s two concrete pads near the launch site at
Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The two side boosters descended back to Earth almost simultaneously, creating two sonic
booms as they executed their final burn.
A few minutes later, the center core landed.
One of the company’s drone ships, named Of Course I Still Love You, hosted the landing
of the center core in the Atlantic Ocean.
Good name,right?
Only the two outer cores arrived back to Earth intact after the Falcon Heavy’s maiden voyage
in February 2018.
The center core’s three engines that were necessary to land failed to light due to a
fuel shortage, causing the rocket booster to miss its target drone ship in the Atlantic
Ocean.
It hit the ocean at 300 miles per hour.
For the Falcon Heavy’s second - and, consequently, more successful flight, SpaceX used upgraded
versions of its rockets.
2.
Crew Dragon
In March 3 of this year, the SpaceX Crew Dragon, also known as the Dragon 2, made history.
Crew Dragon completed its first test mission to the International Space Station.
Before that, in 2012, the Dragon cargo spacecraft made history when it became the first private
spacecraft to dock autonomously with the International Space Station (ISS).
Since then, the Dragon continues to carry cargo to the ISS.
As the name suggests, the Crew Dragon was created to carry astronauts to the Space Station.
The Crew Dragon capsule was launched from a Falcon 9 Rocket and docked with the ISS
on March 3rd, and returned to earth on March 8th.
Thats really fast!!
Crew Dragon can carry up to 7 astronauts and includes an emergency escape system, touch
screen displays, and a life-support system.
This is a huge step because since 2010, the US has not launched any astronauts from US
soil, making them dependent on other countries.
Thanks to SpaceX, this could change the space game.
Unfortunately, the Crew Dragon capsule mysteriously exploded on April 20 during a routine “static
fire” test of its emergency-escape thrusters.
Agency officials for SpaceX and NASA announced on May 28 that the clean-up of the accident
site was complete and that their main focus was on determining the cause of the mishap.
Luckily, SpaceX had several Crew Dragon vessels in production, and plans for the project are
moving forward.
SpaceX and NASA are working together toward a shared goal of sending astronauts to the
International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon before the end of this year.
The only remaining task before a crewed mission can take place is an in-flight abort test.
This is an unmanned mission that will prove that the Crew Dragon’s escape thrusters
can propel the capsule to safety in the event of a launch emergency.
Upon the successful completion of the in-flight abort test, the next planned step is the Demo-2
test mission, which will send two astronauts to the International Space Station.
1.
Public-Private Partnership
Perhaps one of the biggest achievements of SpaceX, and space exploration in general,
is the ongoing partnership between government organizations such as NASA, and the company,
which is privately owned.
SpaceX’s relationship with US government agencies began in 2005, when the company was
awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity, or IDIQ, contract allowing the Air
Force to purchase up to $100 million of launches.
NASA announced in April 2008 that it had awarded SpaceX a similar contract for up to $1 billion
for a two-year period.
In subsequent years, SpaceX was awarded numerous contracts with NASA and other government organizations,
including the Department of Defense.
The United Launch Alliance’s long-held monopoly over US Air Force launches of classified payloads
was broken in 2015 when the Falcon 9 was certified for national security space launch.
SpaceX continues working with various government agencies to deliver cargo, satellites, and
someday, hopefully astronauts to space.
In April, NASA announced that it had awarded SpaceX a $69 million Double Asteroid Redirection
Test, or DART contract.
This is for a mission that will test an asteroid deflection technique.
SpaceX was awarded another NASA contract in July in the amount of $50.3 million for the
launch of three space telescopes in 2021.
This and the DART contract are just the latest in billions of dollars worth of contracts
NASA has awarded to SpaceX and there are probably many more projects to come!
That’s all for today!
What else would you like to learn about space exploration?
Let me know in the comments below!
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