SpaceX Technologies Corp.

SpaceX Technologies Corp.

SpaceX Technologies Corp. currently has four orbital launch sites: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the Falcon rocket; and Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, for Starship. SpaceX believes it has a spot at each of its four orbital facilities and says there is enough launch business to fill each airspace. Highly inclined trajectories (66 to 145 degrees) are possible at the Vandenberg launch site, while moderately inclined trajectories (28.5 to 55 degrees) are possible at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy. A large slope, including SSO, is possible as it passes over Cuba from Florida.

The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the ultimate goal of revolutionizing space transportation and making life multiplanetary. It has attracted global attention for a series of historic milestones.

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, commonly known as SpaceX, is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launch services provider, defense contractor, and satellite communications company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and eventually developing a permanent colony on Mars. The company currently operates the Dragon and Starship spacecraft, as well as the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

The company provides internet services through Starlink satellites. In January 2020, the Starlink satellites became the largest constellation in history, and by November 2023, there were more than 5,000 small satellites in orbit.

Meanwhile, the company is developing Starship, a human-evaluated, fully reusable super-heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight. Following its maiden flight in April 2023, it was the largest and most powerful rocket ever to fly. The rocket will reach space in November 2023 on its second flight.

It was the first private company to develop a liquid-fueled rocket that reached orbit. Launch a spacecraft, orbit it, and recover it. Send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. And send astronauts to the International Space Station. It was the first organization to achieve the vertically powered landing of an orbital rocket booster and the first to reuse such a booster. The company’s Falcon 9 rocket has landed and relaunched more than 200 times. [8] As of December 2023, it’s valued at approximately $180 billion.

History

2001–2004: Founding

In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin, donated US$100,000 to his Mars Society, and briefly joined its board of directors. He gave a plenary lecture at the fourth conference and announced Mars Oasis, a project to cultivate plants in greenhouses on Mars. Musk initially attempted to obtain a Dnieper intercontinental ballistic missile for the project through a Russian biography of Jim Cantrell.

When Musk returned to Moscow, Russia, with Michael Griffin, he found the Russians increasingly hostile. While returning home, Musk announced that he might start a company to build affordable rockets as per his needs. By implementing vertical integration, using cheap off-the-shelf components when possible, and taking a modular approach to modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly reduce launch prices. Griffin was later appointed NASA Administrator and helped shape the COTS program.

In early 2002, Elon Musk began looking for employees for his company, soon named SpaceX. Musk offered Michael Griffin the position of chief engineer, Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey founded Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris. We contacted five people for the first position in our young company, including Thompson. SpaceX was initially headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees, including Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from nearby companies TRW and Boeing. As of November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX’s initial employees. Musk said one of his goals at SpaceX is to reduce costs and ultimately make access to space 10 times more reliable.

2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches

First successful Falcon 1 launch was in September 2008

SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was a low-cost, two-stage orbital launch vehicle. The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately $90 million to $100 million. The Falcon rocket series is named after the Star Wars fictional spaceship, the Millennium Falcon.

In 2004, SpaceX filed a Government Accountability Office (GAO) complaint against NASA over its exclusive source contract with Kistler Aerospace. Before GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract and established the COTS program. In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-created commercial space program by the end of the decade. This project later became the Dragon spacecraft. In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $396 million to provide a crew and cargo resupply demonstration contract to the ISS under the COTS program.

The first two Falcon 1 launches were procured by the US Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon project, which evaluates new US rockets suitable for prompt global strike hypersonic missile launches. The first three launches of the rocket from 2006 to 2008 failed, and the company almost disappeared. Financing for Tesla Motors also failed, and as a result, Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally all came close to bankruptcy at the same time. Musk reportedly “woke up from nightmares, screaming, and physical pain” due to the stress.

The financial situation started improving after the first successful launch in its fourth attempt on September 28, 2008. Musk divided the remaining $30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded SpaceX its first commercial resupply services (CRS) contract, giving SpaceX $1.6 billion. This brought financial relief to the company. Based on these factors and the further commercial operations it enabled, Falcon 1 was retired in July 2009, shortly after its second successful launch and its fifth overall. This allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on developing its larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Additionally, Gwynn Shotwell was promoted to president at this time for her work in successfully negotiating the CRS contract.

2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contract.

SpaceX originally planned to develop a medium-capability rocket, the Falcon 5, after the lighter Falcon 1 rocket, but the company instead decided in 2005 to develop a larger reusable lift rocket, the Falcon 9. The development of the Falcon 9 was expedited by NASA, which has committed to purchasing it for some commercial flights if certain capabilities are demonstrated. It began in 2006 with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. The total contract value was $278 million, which provided funding for the development of the Dragon Falcon 9 spacecraft and the demonstration launch of Dragon’s Falcon 9. As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 was first launched in June 2010 using a Dragon spacecraft mockup with a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit.

The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 on COTS Demonstration Flight 1, the second Falcon 9 flight, and returned safely to Earth after two orbits, meeting all mission objectives. Was achieved. By December 2010, SpaceX’s production line had produced one Falcon 9. And Dragon every 3 months.

In April 2011, as part of the Second Round Commercial Crew Development (CCDEV) program, NASA awarded a $1 million contract to Space Sign. NASA entered into a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) with SpaceX in August 2012 to develop detailed designs for the crew transportation system.

As of early 2012, about two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk, and at the time, Musk’s 70 million shares were worth $875 million in the private market, increasing SpaceX’s valuation to an estimated $1.3 billion. I went. In May 2012, with the launch of Dragon C2+, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. After the flight, the company’s private equity valuation nearly doubled to $2.4 billion, or $20 per share. By that time, SpaceX was working on a total of about $1 billion in funding for its first 10 years of operation. Private equity provided about $200 million of this, with Musk investing about $100 million and other investors contributing about $100 million.

SpaceX’s aggressive reusability test program began in late 2012, testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototype demonstrated vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). High-speed, high-altitude testing of booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.

2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth

Falcon 9 launch with ORBCOMM OG2-M1 in July 2014

SpaceX launched its first commercial mission for a civilian customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won 9 out of 20 publicly competitive contracts worldwide. That same year, Arianespace asked for additional subsidies from European governments to counter the competition from SpaceX. Starting in 2014, SpaceX’s capabilities and pricing also began to impact the US military payload launch market, which had been dominated by the leading US launch provider, United Launch Alliance (ULA), for nearly a decade. This monopoly has driven up launch costs for US providers to more than $400 million over the past few years. In September 2014, NASA Commercial Spaceflight Director Kevin Crigler awarded a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to SpaceX to complete the development of the crew transportation system. The contract included several technology and certification milestones, one unmanned flight test, one manned flight test, and six post-certification operational missions.

In January 2015, SpaceX raised $1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity in exchange for an 8.33% stake in the company, valuing the company at approximately $12 billion. The same month, SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation called Starlink, which will provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.

The Falcon 9 experienced its first major failure in late June 2015. Then, CRS-7, the seventh ISS resupply mission, exploded just two minutes into its flight. The cause of the problem was determined to be that the two-foot-tall steel column supporting the helium pressure vessel had been damaged by acceleration forces. This caused a crack, allowing high-pressure helium to leak into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing failure.

2015–2017: Reusability milestones

Falcon 9 first stage on the Spaceport Unmanned Vehicle vehicle ship (ASDS) barge after first successful sea landing on SpaceX CRS-8 mission

SpaceX first successfully landed and recovered the first stage on Falcon 9 Flight 20 in December 2015. In April 2016, the company made its first successful landing on an autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS). ocean. By October 2016, following the successful landing, SpaceX announced that it would offer a 10% discount on prices if customers chose to fly their payloads on a reconditioned Falcon 9 first stage.

The second major rocket failure occurred in early September 2016, when the Falcon 9 exploded during propellant filling operations for a standard pre-launch static fire test. The AMOS-6 communications satellite, carrying $200 million worth of payload, was destroyed. The explosion occurred when liquid oxygen used as a propellant cooled too much, froze, and ignited in a carbon-mixed helium container. Although not considered a flight failure, the rocket explosion caused the launch to be suspended for four months until the company resolved the fault. SpaceX resumed flights in January 2017.

Later that year, in March 2017, SpaceX launched the returned Falcon 9 as the SES-10 satellite. This was the first relaunch of an orbital rocket with a payload back into space and the first landing of a reused orbital-class rocket with a recovered first stage.

2017-2018: World’s leading commercial launch provider

In July 2017, the company raised $350 million, increasing its valuation to $21 billion. In 2017, SpaceX signed a commercial launch contract and achieved a global market share of 45%. As of March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches and contract revenue of approximately $12 billion. The contract included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This makes SpaceX the world’s leading commercial launch provider, as measured by manifest launches.

In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company, and used a small number of SpaceX employees to begin construction work on a small test tunnel adjacent to SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facilities, which was completed in May 2018. Happened. During 2018, The Boring Company was established as a separate legal entity, with 6% of the stock given to SpaceX, less than 10% given to early employees, and the remaining stock given to Elon Musk.

 2019–present: Starship, Starlink, and first crewed launches

In January 2019, SpaceX announced that it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance the Starship and Starlink projects. The Starship vehicle is intended to enable large-scale transportation of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Production and testing of early prototypes of Starship began in Florida and Texas in early 2019. All Starship construction and testing was moved to the new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year. In May 2019, SpaceX also launched its first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, and the following year began deployment of what would become the world’s largest commercial constellation. The company raised $1.33 billion in three funding rounds in 2019. By May 2019, SpaceX’s valuation increased to $33.3 billion, and by March 2020, it reached $36 billion.

An important milestone was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX prepared to launch two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo 2. With its success, SpaceX became the first private company to send astronauts to space. In international space. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida.

On August 19, 2020, SpaceX’s valuation increased to $46 billion after a $1.9 billion funding round, the largest single funding round by a privately held company.

In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $1.61 billion in an equity round from 99 investors, equivalent to approximately $420 per share, increasing the company’s valuation to approximately $74 billion. SpaceX has raised more than $6 billion in equity financing by 2021. The majority of capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational deployment of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacturing of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, SpaceX’s valuation had increased to $100.3 billion. [On April 16, 2021, Starship HLS was awarded the contract and will play a key role in Project Artemis. [95] As of 2021, SpaceX has partnered with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft to provide ground computing and networking services for Starlink. Signed agreement with Azure. A new round of funding in 2022 values SpaceX at $127 billion.

In July 2021, SpaceX announced another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas, which landed a booster from CRS-23 for the first time on August 29, 2021. In the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX has conducted 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. Most of SpaceX’s launches in 2022 are focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends up batches of internet beam satellites and currently has more than 2,200 satellites in orbit. On December 13, 2021, the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, announced a donation of $100 million as a financial reward to the XPRIZE Foundation in February last year. It was announced that an evacuation program would be initiated. Winner of a competition to develop the best carbon capture technology.

On July 16, 2021, SpaceX signed an agreement to acquire Swarm Technologies, a private company building a constellation of low-orbit satellites to communicate with Internet of Things (IoT) devices, for $524 million.

In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) had begun preliminary talks with SpaceX after Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets during its invasion of Ukraine. It was reported that talks have begun about the possibility of the launcher being used temporarily. Since the same invasion, Starlink has been extensively used in the large-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.

In December 2022, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave SpaceX approval to launch 7,500 next-generation satellites on its Starlink internet network.

In 2022, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a year. SpaceX plans to launch a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, for a total of 61 launches. All but one (the Falcon Heavy in November) were mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket.

On April 20, 2023, Starship’s first orbital flight test ended with a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, several engines in the booster gradually failed, causing the vehicle to reach maximum Q earlier than planned. Ultimately, the rocket lost control and spun erratically until the automatic flight termination system was activated, causing the rocket to be intentionally destroyed. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and others familiar with the space industry described the test flight as a success.

Musk said at the time that it would take “six to eight weeks” to prepare the infrastructure for the next launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX official said that the company is ready to launch its next test flight starting in September. He accused government regulators of hindering the program’s progress and said delays could impair China’s ability to return American astronauts to the moon.

On November 18, 2023, SpaceX launched its second joint Starship test, with both vehicles flying for several minutes before detonating separately.

In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $2.2 million.

Summary of achievements

Hardware

The Falcon 9 Block 5 first stage landed at Cape Canaveral in July 2019. VTVL technology is used in many of SpaceX’s launch vehicles.

SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The short-lift Falcon 1 was the first launch vehicle developed and was retired in 2009. The medium lift Falcon 9 and heavy lift Falcon Heavy are both operational.

Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of carrying hundreds of kilograms of payload into low Earth orbit. It was launched five times between 2006 and 2009, two of which were successful. The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.

The Falcon 9 is a medium-sized launch vehicle that can carry up to 22,800 kg (50,265 lb) of mass to orbit, competing with the Delta IV and Atlas V rockets as well as other launch providers around the world. The first stage is powered by nine Merlin engines. The Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on June 4, 2010. Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on May 22, 2012, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station (ISS). [51] The vehicle was upgraded to Falcon 9 v1.1 in 2013, Falcon 9 Full Thrust in 2015, and finally Falcon 9 Block 5 in 2018. The Falcon 9 first stage is designed for landing, recovery, and takeoff retroactively.

The Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of carrying up to 63,800 kg (140,700 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO) and up to 26,700 kg (58,900 lb) to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). It uses three slightly modified Falcon 9 first stage cores and a total of 27 Merlin 1D engines. Falcon Heavy successfully flew its first mission on February 6, 2018, launching Musk’s personal Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit.

Both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been certified for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) launches. As of February 20, 2024, the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been launched 310 times, resulting in 308 complete missions, one partial mission success and one in-flight failure. Additionally, the Falcon 9 experienced a pre-flight failure during static fire testing in 2016.

SpaceX is developing a fully reusable ultra-heavy-lift launch system known as Starship. It consists of a reusable first stage spacecraft called Super Heavy and a reusable second stage spacecraft called Starship. The system is intended to replace the company’s existing launch vehicle hardware by the early 2020s.

Rocket engines

The Merlin 1D engine is being tested at SpaceX’s rocket development and test facility in McGregor, Texas

Since SpaceX’s founding in 2002, the company has developed several rocket engines for use in launch vehicles, including the Merlin, Kestrel and Raptor. [149] [150] We developed DRACO for the reaction control system of the Dragon series of spacecraft. ] and SuperDraco for the Crew Dragon abort facility.

The Merlin is a family of rocket engines that use liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 propellant. Merlin was first used to power the first stage of the Falcon 1 and is currently used in the stages of both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles. The Kestrel uses the same propellant and was used as the main engine of the second stage of the Falcon 1 rocket.

DRACO and SuperDraco are super-powerful liquid-propelled rocket engines. The DRACO engine is used in the reaction control systems of the Dragon and Dragon 2 spacecraft. The SuperDraco engines are more powerful, and eight SuperDraco engines provide launch escape capabilities for the Crew Dragon 2 spacecraft during an interruption scenario.

Raptor is a new family of liquid oxygen and liquid methane-fueled, full-flow, multi-stage combustion cycle engines that will power the first and second stages of the Starship Launch System under development. The development version was tested in late 2016, and the engine flew for the first time in 2019, powering the Starhopper vehicle to an altitude of 20 meters (66 ft).

Dragon spacecraft

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is designed to shuttle crews to and from the International Space Station as part of the Commercial Crew Development Program.

SpaceX developed the Dragon spacecraft to carry cargo and crew to the International Space Station. The first version of the cargo-only Dragon was first launched in 2010. The currently operational second-generation Dragon spacecraft, known as Dragon 2, made its first unmanned flight to the ISS in early 2019, followed by a manned flight. The cargo version of Dragon 2 first flew in December 2020 to resupply the space station as part of the CRS contract with NASA.

In March 2020, SpaceX announced the Dragon XL, designed under a Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract as a resupply spacecraft for NASA’s planned Lunar Gateway space station. Dragon XL will be launched on Falcon Heavy and can carry more than 5,000 kg. (11,000 pounds) to the gateway. Dragon XL will be placed on the gateway for six to 12 months at a time.

Autonomous spaceport drone ships

Autonomous spaceport drone ship moves into position ahead of CRS-6 mission

SpaceX regularly returns the first stages of its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets to orbit after launch. The rocket uses only its own propulsion system to take off and land at a predetermined landing site. If propellant margin does not allow return to launch site (RTLS), the rocket returns to a floating landing platform in the ocean called an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (ASDS). ,

SpaceX also plans to introduce a floating launch platform. These are oil rigs modified for use in the 2020s and are used to provide an ocean launch option for second-generation rockets, the heavy-lift Starship system consisting of a Super Heavy booster and a Starship second stage.

Starlink

60 Starlink satellites ditched before deployment

Starlink is a constellation of Internet satellites being developed by SpaceX, consisting of thousands of interlinked communications satellites in orbits about 550 kilometers (550 mi) apart. Owned and operated by SpaceX, it aims to address the world’s large unmet need for low-cost broadband capabilities.

Development began in 2015, and the first prototype test flight satellite was launched in 2017 on the SpaceX Paz satellite mission. In May 2019, SpaceX launched its first batch of 60 satellites on a Falcon 9. The first pilot of this constellation began in late 2020. Customers were told to expect Internet service speeds of 50 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s and latency of 20 ms to 40 ms. In December 2022, Starlink surpassed 1 million customers worldwide.

The large number of planned Starlink satellites has been criticized by astronomers over concerns about light pollution, where the glare from Starlink satellites at both light and radio wavelengths would hinder scientific observations. In response, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades aimed at reducing the brightness of its Starlink satellites. The large number of satellites used by Starlink also creates a long-term risk of space debris collisions. However, the satellite is equipped with a krypton-fueled Hall thruster that allows it to exit orbit at the end of its life. It is also designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.

In December 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program that integrates military and government payloads on Starlink-derived satellite buses. The Space Development Agency is a major customer for satellite acquisition for space-based missile defense systems.

Other projects

In June 2015, SpaceX announced that it would sponsor the Hyperloop competition and build a 1.6 km (0.99 mi) long subscale test track near SpaceX headquarters for the competition program. The company has been organizing this competition every year since 2017.

In collaboration with physicians and academic researchers, SpaceX invited all employees in 2020 to participate in creating a COVID-19 antibody testing program. That’s why 4,300 employees volunteered to donate blood samples, resulting in eight credits in a peer-reviewed scientific paper. A study co-authored by a SpaceX employee suggests that some levels of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus.

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini submarine to help rescue children trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the International Rescue Diving Team, urged Musk to speed up construction of the vehicles as a backup if flood conditions worsen. [185] [186] Engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company assembled the mini-submarine in eight hours using the Falcon 9’s liquid oxygen transfer tube and personally delivered it to Thailand. However, by this time, eight of the 12 children had already been rescued wearing full face coverings and masks. Oxygen administration under anesthesia. As a result, Thai officials refused to use submarines.

NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Clouds and Ocean Ecosystems) satellite was launched on Thursday, February 8, 2024 at 12:03 pm IST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The spacecraft had separated from the rocket. A few minutes later, it reached the second stage and entered a Sun-synchronous orbit. The Falcon 9 rocket also stopped landing, completing the fourth flight of this particular Falcon 9 rocket.

 Facilities

SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, which also serves as its primary manufacturing facility. The company conducts research and large-scale operations in Redmond, Washington, owns a test site in Texas and operates three launch sites, with another in development. SpaceX is based in Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Also operates regional offices in. SpaceX was founded in Delaware.

Headquarters, mission control, manufacturing, and refurbishment facilities

SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California at night during a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base

SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, just outside Los Angeles. This large, three-story facility was originally built by Northrop to manufacture Boeing 747 airframes and houses SpaceX office space, mission control, and Falcon 9 manufacturing facilities.

The region is home to space sector headquarters, facilities, and/or subsidiaries, including the major satellite manufacturing complexes of Boeing/McDonnell Douglas, the Aerospace Corporation, Raytheon, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the U.S. Space Force Space Systems. This is one of the highest concentrations in the United States. It commands Los Angeles Air Force Base, companies such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and AECOM, and is home to many aerospace engineers and college engineering graduates.

SpaceX uses a high level of vertical integration in the production of rockets and rocket engines. SpaceX manufactures rocket engines, rocket stages, spacecraft, major avionics and all software at its Hawthorne facility, which is unusual in the space industry.

In January 2015, SpaceX announced that it would enter the satellite manufacturing business and global satellite internet business. The first satellite facility is a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m) office building in Redmond, Washington. By January 2017, a second facility at 40,625 square feet (3,774.2 m) in Redmond was acquired and became a satellite research and development laboratory. [194] In July 2016, SpaceX acquired Irvine to focus on satellite communications. , acquired an additional 8,000 square feet (740 m²) of office space in California.

Development and test facilities

SpaceX operates a rocket development and test facility in McGregor, Texas. All SpaceX rocket engines have been tested on the Rocket Test Stand, and low-altitude VTVL flight tests of the Falcon 9 Grasshopper were conducted at McGregor in 2012–2013. The much larger Starship prototype is being tested at SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas. ,

The company purchased the McGregor facility from Beale Aerospace and re-established its largest test stand there for Falcon 9 engine testing. Since its purchase, SpaceX has made several improvements to the facility and expanded its footprint by purchasing some adjacent agricultural land. As of October 2012, McGregor’s facility had seven test stands that operated “18 hours a day, six days a week”, but production is increasing and the company expects to expand extensively in the coming years. More test stands are being built and disclosures are planned. In addition to routine testing, the Dragon capsule (following recovery from an orbital mission) will be sent to McGregor for fuel removal, cleaning, and refurbishing for reuse on future missions.

Launch facilities

SpaceX currently has four orbital launch sites: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for the Falcon rocket, and Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, for Starship. SpaceX believes it has a spot at each of its four orbital facilities and says there is enough launch business to fill each airspace. Highly inclined trajectories (66 to 145 degrees) are possible at the Vandenberg launch site, while moderately inclined trajectories (28.5 to 55 degrees) are possible at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy. A large slope, including SSO, is possible as it passes over Cuba from Florida.

Before retirement, all Falcon 1 launches took place at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Range on Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands.

In April 2007, the Department of Defense approved SpaceX’s use of Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40). The site has been used since 2010, primarily to launch Falcon 9 into low-earth orbit and geostationary orbit. The former Launch Complex 13 at Cape Canaveral, now named Landing Zones 1 and 2, has been used for Falcon 9 first-stage booster landings since 2015.

SpaceX West Coast Launch Facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base during CASSIOPE launch

Vandenberg Space Launch Complex 4 (SLC-4E) was leased from the Army in 2011 and is used to launch payloads into polar orbit. The Vandenberg facility can launch both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, but not into low-inclination orbit. The adjacent SLC-4W was modified into Landing Zone 4 in 2015 for booster landings.

On April 14, 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A. The pad has since been modified to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. As of 2024, it is the only pad to support Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX launched its first crewed mission to the ISS on May 30, 2020, from Launch Pad 39A. Launch Pad 39A is slated to eventually accommodate Starship launches by 2019. Preparation for the 39A Starship was accelerated to 2022 due to delays in Boca Chica’s FAA launch permit.

SpaceX builds and flies its Starship test vehicle from SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, near Brownsville, and announced preliminary plans for the launch facility in August 2014. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the permit in July 2014. A new launch facility was built in 2014; construction began in late 2015; and the first suborbital launch from this facility will occur in 2019, with orbital launches beginning in 2023. Some residents of Boca Chica Village in Brownsville and environmental activists criticized the facility. The Starship Development Program will be used in a number of ways.

Contracts

Further information about SpaceX launches: List of Falcon 1 § Launches, List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches, List of SpaceX Starship flight tests

SpaceX has won a demonstration and actual supply contract from NASA for the International Space Station (ISS) for the technology it developed. SpaceX has also been certified for US military launches of Evolved Expendable Vehicle (EELV) class payloads. In 2018 alone, SpaceX has about 30 missions lined up with a contract value of more than $12 billion.

 Cargo to ISS

COTS 2 Dragon is anchored to the International Space Station (ISS) by Canadarm2

In 2006, SpaceX was awarded a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo transportation to the International Space Station (ISS). It also includes contract options for crew transportation. Through a deal designed by NASA to provide “seed money” through the Space Act agreement to develop new capabilities, NASA will provide $396 million to SpaceX for the development of the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft. Payment, while SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 rocket with its own resources. These space law agreements have helped NASA save millions of dollars in development costs and make rocket development four to ten times cheaper than if NASA had done it alone.

The SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 mission launched in December 2010, making SpaceX the first private company to successfully launch, place, and recover a spacecraft. In May 2012, SpaceX Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully land on the ISS during COTS demonstration flight 2.

Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station by commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contract was signed in 2008 and awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion for 12 cargo missions covering deliveries through 2016. SpaceX CRS-1 was the first of 12 planned resupply missions, launched in October 2012, that reached, deployed, and remained in orbit. It remained on station for 20 days, then reentered the atmosphere and fell into the Pacific Ocean.

Since then, CRS missions have flown to the ISS approximately twice a year. In 2015, NASA extended the Phase 1 contract by ordering SpaceX for three additional resupply flights as well as a total of 20 cargo missions to the ISS. SpaceX CRS-20, the final Dragon 1 mission, lifts off from the ISS. Dragon was retired in April 2020. The contract for the second phase was signed in January 2016, and SpaceX was one of the winners. SpaceX plans to conduct nine additional CRS flights with the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft. [226] [227] In March 2020, NASA contracted with SpaceX to develop the Dragon XL spacecraft to deliver supplies to the Gateway space station on the Moon. Dragon XL will be launched on Falcon Heavy.

 Crewed

SpaceX is responsible for transporting NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The contract with NASA began as part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDEV) program, which aims to develop a commercially operational spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS. The first contract with SpaceX to continue development and testing of the Dragon 2 spacecraft was signed in 2011, followed by a second contract in 2012.

In September 2014, NASA selected SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies to receive funding to develop transportation systems to transport American crews to and from the ISS. SpaceX received $2.6 billion to complete and certify Dragon 2 by 2017. The contract called for at least one crewed test flight with at least one NASA astronaut. Once Crew Dragon received NASA’s human spaceflight certification, the contract required SpaceX to conduct a minimum of two and a maximum of six crewed missions to the space station.

SpaceX completed the first significant flight test for the Crew Dragon spacecraft, a pad abort test, in May 2015, and successfully completed a fully unmanned test flight in early 2019. The capsule docked with the ISS and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2020, SpaceX conducted an in-flight abort test. This was the crew’s final test flight before takeoff, and the Dragon spacecraft ignited its launch escape engine in a simulated abort scenario.

On May 30, 2020, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley. It was the first manned spacecraft launch from the United States since 2011 and the first commercially manned launch to a space station. The ISS Crew-1 mission was launched on November 16, 2020, with the entire Expedition 64 crew, including NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi. It was successfully launched into the International Space Station. On April 23, 2021, Crew-2 NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and K. Megan MacArthur arrive at the International Space Station with JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and ESA astronaut Thomas Peske. The Crew-2 mission successfully docked on April 24, 2021.

National defense

In 2005, SpaceX announced that the US Air Force had been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, which allowed it to purchase launches worth up to $100 million from the company. Three years later, NASA announced that it had signed an IDIQ launch services contract with SpaceX worth up to $1 billion, depending on the number of missions ordered. In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the US Department of Defense (DoD). The U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded two EELV-class missions to SpaceX: the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched in 2015 on a Falcon 9 rocket, and STP-2 was launched on June 25, 2019 on a Falcon Heavy.

The Falcon 9 v1.1 received National Security Space Launch (NSSL) certification in 2015, allowing SpaceX to contract with the Air Force for launch services for payloads classified as national security. This breaks the monopoly held by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) since 2006 on launches of classified payloads by the US Air Force. In April 2016, the US Air Force hired SpaceX to launch its second GPS III satellite for $82.7 million in the first national security launch. This was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost of previous similar missions. SpaceX also conducted its third GPS III launch on June 20, 2020. In March 2018, SpaceX won an additional $290 million contract from the US Air Force to launch three more GPS III satellites.

The US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also purchased launches from SpaceX, with the first launch taking place on May 1, 2017. In February 2019, SpaceX was awarded a $297 million contract from the US Air Force to launch three additional national security missions. In August 2020, the US Space Force awarded a National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract for the next five to seven years. SpaceX was awarded a contract worth $316 million per launch. Additionally, SpaceX will handle 40% of the US military’s satellite launch requirements during this period.

SpaceX is also designing and launching custom military satellites for the space development agency as part of a new missile defense system in low-earth orbit. This constellation will give the United States the ability to detect, target, and potentially intercept nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons launched from anywhere on Earth. Both China and Russia have expressed concerns about the UN plan, and various organizations have warned that it could be destabilizing and could provoke an arms race in space.

beginning of market competition and price pressure

For details, see “Space Launch Market Competition.”

SpaceX’s low launch prices, particularly for communications satellites sent into geostationary orbit (GTO), have created market pressure to lower its prices relative to competitors [15]. Before 2013, the openly competitive Comsat launch market was dominated by Arianespace (flying Ariane 5) and International Launch Services (flying Proton). At a published price of $56.5 million per launch into low Earth orbit, the Falcon 9 rocket was the cheapest in the industry. European satellite operators are asking ESA to lower the launch prices of Ariane 5 and future Ariane 6 rockets as a result of competition. from space x

SpaceX has ended its monopoly on US military payloads with the United Launch Alliance (ULA), which has started competing for national security launches. In 2015, anticipating a decline in domestic, military, and spy launches, ULA said it would go out of business unless it received commercial satellite launch orders. To that end, ULA announced a major restructuring of its processes and workforce to reduce launch costs. half.

Testimony to Congress by SpaceX in 2017 stated that the NASA Space Act settlement process, which “sets only high-level requirements for cargo delivery to the space station and leaves the details up to industry,” prevented SpaceX from meeting its Inspire requirement to use the Falcon 9 rocket. It was suggested they were allowed to design and develop it. Can be used alone at a fairly low cost. According to data independently verified by NASA, the total development cost of the Falcon 9 rocket, which also includes SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket, is estimated at $390 million. In 2011, NASA estimated that developing a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster would cost about $4 billion, or about 10 times more than under NASA’s traditional contracting process. In May 2020, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine credited NASA’s investment. With the entry of SpaceX, the US now captures 70% of the commercial launch market, a significant improvement compared to 2012, when there were no commercial launches from the country.

Board of directors

SpaceX board of directors as of January 2021

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