Simplifying SpaceX: A Quick Guide to Elon Musk’s Space Company

SpaceX, the rocket business founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk, was founded with the goal of taking humans to Mars. Almost two decades later it has already been taken NASA astronauts orbit and along the way reached many other milestones.

If you’re struggling to keep up with SpaceX’s plans to do so replaces international airline flights with airliners, create a global broadband network and develop a Mars rocket, do not worry. We created this SpaceX underlay so you can pop up quickly.

How SpaceX started

In 2002, Musk and friends traveled to Russia to purchase a refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile. The prodigy of Silicon Valley, who earned millions of Internet startups, did not want to start a business at the time. He wanted to spend a large portion, or perhaps all of his fortune, on a stunt he hoped would rekindle interest in funding NASA and space exploration.

The idea was to buy a Russian rocket at the cheapest and use it to send plants or mice to Mars – and hopefully bring them back as well. Ideally, the spectacle will once again excite the world about space. But Musk’s Moscow meeting did not go well and he decided to build rockets himself, calculating that in the process he would be able to undercut existing launch contractors. SpaceX was founded just a few months later.

What is a Falcon 9 rocket?

Musk initially hoped to reach Mars by 2010, but only one rocket in orbit took six years. A SpaceX Falcon 1 orbits the earth for the first time on September 28, 2008. This paved the way for a nine-engine version of the rocket, the Falcon 9, the company’s workhorse. since its first launch in 2010.

Falcon 9 is a two-stage orbital rocket used to launch satellites for companies and governments, to re-host the International Space Station and even the The US Air Force’s top secret spacecraft on his mysterious long missions. In the past nine years, the company has flown more than 80 Falcon 9 missions.

What really sets Falcon 9 apart from the competition is the unprecedented ability to send a payload into orbit and then return the first phase to Earth, either on solid ground or on a floating drone landing at sea, another SpaceX innovation. After several explosive failed attempts, a Falcon 9 finally landed safely on December 22, 2015 and a few months later another touched a drone for the first time. Several recovered Falcon 9 rockets have since flown and landed again.

On May 11, 2018, SpaceX launched its first Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket, the ‘final version’ designed to be reused up to 100 times with periodic upgrades. In 2020, we see several Falcon 9 boosters start and end up for the seventh time in their individual careers. The reuse of the nose cone has been used several times.

A flying dragon

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft was used to transport cargo to the International Space Station and on 31 May 2020, its Crew Dragon made history as the first commercial spaceship to send astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the ISS. Dragon was also the first commercial spacecraft recovered after a ride from an orbit.

NASA has chosen Crew Dragon, along with Boeing’s Starliner, to be the first spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS since the end of the shuttle program. The initiative had a setback in April 2019 when an unoccupied Crew Dragon exploded during a ground test due to a leak in the pressure system.

But the first flight of Crew Dragon with people on board was a success. Hurley and Behnken ride the dragon back to earth A few months later, another group of four astronauts, including one of the Japanese JAXA, undertook the second voyage in a dragon in November 2020.

Falcon Heavy light

SpaceX attracted a lot of attention in February of 2018 when it launched Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket launched from the USA since Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the moon. In principle, three Falcon 9 rockets tied together, the large launch system sent a test charge consisting of Musk’s personal red Tesla Roadster in the direction of Mars. Two of the three Falcon 9s that made up Falcon Heavy also land in Cape Canaveral, Florida, almost simultaneously.

More than 15 years after his initial trip to Moscow, Musk finally drew the international spectacle he had envisioned in 2001, and in the process, he also built a viable business.

The second launch of Falcon Heavy took place on April 11, 2019 and was followed by the first successful landing of all three of the first phase rocket cores. A third Falcon Heavy launch was made on June 25, 2019 and SpaceX took usability a step further catch the cargo cargo (the nose cone that protects the payload during launch) using a ship equipped with a giant net.

As for Starman, he finally has a near Mars in October 2020

How to follow Falcon flights

You can watch every launch of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy through the company’s website and YouTube channel. Quite a few of them are also featured on CNET Highlights. Each broadcast is usually presented live approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled launch time.

Keeping up with the ever-changing schedule of launches is the best resource SpaceX Twitter Feed. It is also a good idea to follow Musk’s account, if you have not already done so. You can also check out our own supply of SpaceX stories to quickly stay up to date with what the business is doing.

Starship to the Moon and Mars

SpaceX plans to use Falcon Heavy some large payloads in the coming months, but it is already working on an even larger rocket called Starship (formerly referred to as BFR, Big Falcon Rocket or Big F *** ing Rocket) . Musk hopes that this even more massive rocket cargo can eventually transport human passengers around the world and the solar system. He intends to use Starship to transport people further super-fast international flights via space and finally to bases still to be built on the moon, Mars and beyond.

An engine Starship prototype called Starhopper left the ground for the first time on July 25, 2019 and hover about 20 feet off the ground before landing a little further at SpaceX’s test facility in south Texas. This was followed by a few more heaps at the end of 2019 and mid-2020.

The first high-flying flight of a prototype that actually looks more like a rocket took place on December 10, 2020. The SN8 prototype flew successfully to a height similar to the altitude of commercial jets and then performed a new turning maneuver to land. However, it came a little fast and the flight ended on a spectacular explosion. We expect to see some more of these high-flying tests in 2021 with the aim of lowering the landing and also reaching an orbit soon.

Musk presented his plans for a large city on Mars during two international aviation congressional meetings, but he still gave many details about what life would be like on the Red Planet. He said SpaceX is primarily interested in transportation, while other people may be concerned about the infrastructure. However, the company’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, said it could make sense for SpaceX’s sister company, the Boring Company, to carry tunnels on Mars which can be used for human habitation.

Paul Wooster, the company’s chief engineer for its Mars plan, said at the Mars Society conference in 2018 that the first humans sent to the Red Planet would live on Starship’s learned spaceship indefinitely during the construction of housing, landing pads and other initial infrastructure.

Attractions at Starlink

SpaceX is not just working on getting things into space. It also began to work in space to bring the universe to us. In May 2019, the company launched a first group of 60 small satellites designed to pave the way for a massive constellation of broadband satellites. The plan, baptized Starlink, must use up to 42,000 satellites in a low-Earth orbit to cover the world with high speed internet access. The company says the service could create a new stream of revenue to fund its costly Mars ambitions.

A second group of 50 satellites was launched six months later, with more to follow relatively quickly. According to the scope of the project, some astronomers are concerned that an air with thousands of satellites could affect their observations. The trains of newly launched satellites are easily visible from the ground as they gain height. SpaceX says it plans to work with astronomers and take steps to mitigate Starlink’s impact on astronomy, including launching satellites with a sunscreen called ‘visor satellite’ to reduce their reflection.

While the company is working on the first 1000 Starlink satellites they launched has launched a beta of its broadband service in the last quarter of 2020 limited to northern latitudes. The rollout is expected to expand in 2021.

What’s next?

Since its inception, SpaceX has been aiming to reach Mars, but the company has been involved in non-space-related projects on Earth such as the high-speed Hyperloop transit concept. Musk’s Boring Company Tunnel Excavators and businesses that ease traffic also operate largely from SpaceX headquarters in Southern California.

Unlike the other big Musk company, Tesla Motors, SpaceX is not publicly traded. Musk said he has no plans to make SpaceX public before the company realizes its Mars ambitions. This means that SpaceX would meanwhile make sense as home to any future Musical side projects like Hyperloop and the Boring Company.

Originally published on June 2, 2018 and updated as new SpaceX developments come in.