Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: SpaceX: First Private Flights to Space Station

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: February 10, 2016 at 9:59:13 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: SpaceX: First Private Flights to Space Station

SpaceX: First Private Flights to Space Station
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | February 9, 2016 09:51pm ET
Working from the robotics workstation inside the seven-windowed Cupola, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, Expedition 33 flight engineer, with the assistance of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, commander, captured Dragon at 6:56 a.m. (EDT) and used the robotic arm to berth Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node Oct. 10, 2012
Credit: NASA
Space Exploration Technologies (better known as SpaceX) is the first company to ship private cargo to the International Space Station using its own rocket and spaceship, the Dragon. The California-based company has a lucrative contract with NASA to bring cargo to the station.
Additionally, the firm has customers from the private sector, military and non-governmental entities to launch cargo into space. As the company makes its money from launch services, SpaceX is firmly focused on developing technology for future space exploration.
The company is developing what will be the world's most powerful rocket if completed: the Falcon Heavy. Additionally, founder Elon Musk has publicly speculated about the possibility of Mars colonies.
Musk's fortune
Musk made his fortune very early in life: by age 30, in 2002, he had accumulated a reported $300 million and was looking for his next big venture.
According to the New York Times, his money came from the sale of two companies: Zip2, which was bought for $307 million in 1999, and PayPal, which eBay purchased for $1.5 billion in 2002.
Initially, Musk had the idea of sending a greenhouse to the Red Planet, dubbed the "Mars Oasis." It was supposed to drum up public interest in exploration while also serving as a science base. The cost ended up being too high, so instead he decided to start a launching company: SpaceX.
Musk spent a third of his reported fortune — $100 million — to get SpaceX going. At the time, there was a certain amount of skepticism that he would ever be successful, and this persisted into SpaceX's first years.
After spending 18 months toiling privately on a spacecraft, it was released to the public in 2006 under the name "Dragon." Musk reportedly named the Dragon spacecraft after the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon," a 1960s song from folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. He chose the name because critics believed his spaceflight aims were impossible.
Falcon 1 flight
But Musk, a founder of several companies, already had years of business planning behind him. He sought out a stable customer — NASA — who could give funds for the early development of a rocket. Then he wooed launch clients from various sectors to diversify his customer base.
Musk firmly believed that more frequent and more reliable launches would bring down the cost of exploration. As such, his first goal for SpaceX was development of the Falcon 1 rocket.
That alone was an ambitious milestone, as the rocket would be the first privately built, liquid-fueled booster to make it into orbit. The company experienced a steep learning curve on the road to orbit.
It took four tries to get Falcon 1 flying, with previous attempts derailed by problems such as fuel leaks and a rocket stage collision.
"As the saying goes, the fourth time's the charm," Musk told his company of 500 workers on Sept. 28, 2008. "This is one of the best days of my life."
By this point, SpaceX's technology had the full attention of NASA. The company received a $278 million deal in 2006 to demonstrate the ability to send and return cargo to and from the space station. Four months after Falcon 1 first flew successfully, NASA awarded SpaceX a further contract for 12 station resupply flights.
A look inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule and its Falcon 9 rocket.
Credit: Karl Tate/SPACE.com
Enter the Dragon
Flying the Dragon spacecraft would require more rocket power, so SpaceX proposed developing the Falcon 9 rocket to send Dragon into orbit. SpaceX initially hoped to fly the spacecraft by 2008 or 2009, but the process took years longer than the company thought.
Both spacecraft and rocket were ready in 2010. Falcon 9 flew with a simulated Dragon payload in June 2010. In December of that year, Dragon took flight for the first time and splashed down on Earth safely.
The next and most crucial milestone was space station delivery. Dragon delivered its first truckload of cargo to the station in May 2012 under a test flight. The launch was scrubbed for a few days following an engine problem, but lifted off safely on the next try.
Regular cargo flights began with a mission in October 2012 that achieved most of its objectives, but experienced a partial rocket failure during launch that stranded a satellite on board. [Images: SpaceX Dragon Capsule's 1st Cargo Flight to Station]
SpaceX has made regular flights to ISS since then, but not without hiccups. Some critics have charged that SpaceX is not launching as regularly as promised. Also, in 2015, an explosion destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket bearing a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. The cause was traced to a strut problem, grounding flights for several months.
Future thoughts
The company's next major program goal for Dragon is to take people into space. The company is one of two funded under NASA's Commercial Crew program. The crewed version of Dragon was unveiled to great fanfare that same year. SpaceX and its competitor, Boeing, are expected to take astronauts to the International Space Station around 2017 or 2018.
SpaceX is also attempting to build a reusable first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket. It has managed to recover the first stage after landing in water or on land, but several attempts so far to land on a barge have not been successful.,
But in all these years, Musk's dreams of flying to Mars are undimmed.
In 2011, he told delegates at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in San Diego that he plans to take people to Mars in 10 to 15 years. Three years later, at the International Space Development Conference, he said the reusable rocket stage would be a step to getting to the Red Planet.
"The reason SpaceX was created was to accelerate development of rocket technology, all for the goal of establishing a self-sustaining, permanent base on Mars," Musk said at the time. "And I think we're making some progress in that direction — not as fast as I'd like."

SpaceX's Falcon 9: Rocket for the Dragon
By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | February 9, 2016 09:43pm ET
Dragon and Falcon 9 Second Stage, post Second Stage Separation Event.
Credit: NASA
The Falcon 9 rocket is the vehicle that brings Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX)'s Dragon spacecraft into space. SpaceX regularly uses the Falcon 9 to bring its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Dragon made the first private spacecraft visit ever there in October 2012.
SpaceX views Falcon 9 as a stepping-stone to an even heavier-lift rocket, called the Falcon Heavy. Still under development and expected for a test launch in 2016, this rocket is expected to send up to 117,000 lbs. (53,000 kilograms) of cargo into space. This is about twice the weight the space shuttle used to be able to bring into space.
Starting in 2013, SpaceX made some flights of the Falcon 9 using a first stage that it says could be reusable, providing it lands in the right way. The company has achieved soft landings in the ocean and also on land. It also has attempted to land the rocket on a barge. SpaceX says it is close to success with the barge landings, which have seen several failed attempts.
Specs
Height: 229.6 feet (70 meters)
Diameter: 12 feet (3.7 m)
Mass: 1,194,000 lbs. (541,300 kg)
Payload to low Earth orbit (LEO): 28,991 lbs. (13,150 kg)
Payload to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO): 10,692 lbs. (4,850 kg)
The Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket. The first stage has nine Merlin engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks containing liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene (RP-1) propellant, according to SpaceX.
Burn time: 162 seconds
Thrust at sea level: 1.53 million lbs. or 6,806 kilonewtons (kN)
Thrust in vacuum: 1.6695 million lbs. (7,426 kN)
The second stage has one engine that ignites after stage separation.
Burn time: 397 seconds
Thrust: 210,000 lbs. (934 kN)
Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida comes alive as the Merlin engines ignite under the Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule to orbit on Oct. 7, 2012.
Credit: NASA/Tony Gray and Rick Wetherington
Funding the fire
SpaceX first trumpeted the Falcon 9's existence in a press release in 2005. Then priced at up to $35 million per flight (today it's $61.2 million), the rocket was developed in response to customer demand, the company said.
At the time, SpaceX was developing the lighter Falcon 1 rocket, and planned to gradually increase capabilities with an "intermediate class" Falcon 5 launcher.
"However, in response to customer requirements for low-cost enhanced launch capability, SpaceX accelerated development of an [expendable launch]-class vehicle, upgrading Falcon 5 to Falcon 9," the firm stated.
Early listed customers of the rocket included companies such as Bigelow Aerospace, Avanti Communications and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates.
According to SpaceX, it cost over $300 million to develop the vehicle "from a blank sheet to first launch in four and half years."
The company was a winner of one of NASA's sought-after commercial orbital transportation services contracts, which was worth up to $278 million for SpaceX provided it met all its milestones. SpaceX is one of the awarded companies under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The program, aims to launch astronauts to the International Space Station using American vehicles around 2018.
Development
Falcon 9's primary structure was finished in April 2007, and the first multiple engine firings took place in January 2008.
SpaceX spent the year testing the engines, culminating in a "full mission-length firing" in November of that year. In an update to its followers, the California-based company touted the rocket's ability to compensate for failed engines in flight — a selling point to customers.
"The test firing validated the design of SpaceX's use of nine engines on the first stage, as well as the ability to shut down engines without affecting the functioning of the remaining engines," SpaceX wrote in November 2008.
"This demonstrates the ability of Falcon 9 to lose engines in flight and still complete its mission successfully, much as a commercial airliner is designed to be safe in the event of an engine loss. Like an airliner, the Falcon 9 engines are enclosed in a protective sheath that ensures a fire or destructive loss of an engine doesn't affect the rest of the vehicle."
Falcon 9 was designed to lift the Dragon spacecraft. NASA provided money across several commercial crew contracts to help fund Dragon's development, as its primary customer was intended to be NASA cargo flights to the International Space Station. SpaceX made a world-first visit to the station with Dragon in 2012, and is now one of two private-company providers for regular cargo ISS flights (along with Orbital Sciences', which flies Cygnus spacecraft).
SpaceX conducted a static fire of its Falcon 9 rocket on April 30, 2012. During the test, the nine Merlin engines that power the rocket's first stage were ignited for two seconds.
Credit: SpaceX
Taking flight
On Jan. 12, 2009, the Falcon 9 rocket rose to a vertical position at Cape Canaveral. It would be several months before the rocket soared into space, but SpaceX said the configuration was necessary to test all the systems in the next year.
SpaceX hoped to send the rocket up in 2009, but the actual launch date was June 7, 2010. The rocket passed all of the expected milestones, but encountered an unexpected roll during launch.
Because the Dragon spacecraft was still under development, the rocket carried a dummy payload into space. Falcon 9 finally fueled the Dragon's fire on Dec. 8, 2010. It was the first time a rocket had carried a private unmanned space capsule into space, which then returned safely to Earth.
While Falcon 9 successfully brought Dragon to space several times, the rocket has experienced some growing pains. For example, an engine problem forced an abort before Dragon soared to the ISS for a test flight in May 2012.
An engine problem also marred Dragon's first official cargo run to the station five months later. Dragon arrived safely at its destination, but a satellite on board did not. Orbcomm's prototype satellite messaging service satellite fell out of orbit early, just five days after launch. However, the New Jersey company said it had received some test data during the satellite's brief stay in space.
Falcon 9's most catastrophic moment came in June 2015, when the rocket exploded in mid-air while carrying a Dragon spacecraft that was supposed to resupply the International Space Station. The cause was traced to a faulty strut and flights were suspended for several months. [Gallery: The Falcon and Dragons of SpaceX]
Pinpoint landings
SpaceX wants to use its experience with Falcon 9 to develop an even heavier-lift rocket: the Falcon Heavy. The first test launch for this rocket is expected in 2016.
In 2011, the company stated it hoped to use Falcon Heavy to break into the defense market, then dominated by United Launch Alliance. SpaceX and the Air Force settled a lawsuit in 2015 that was related to a ULA contract award.
By 2013 and 2014, some critics charged that SpaceX was launching far fewer flights than planned. Simultaneously, the company began flying a version of the Falcon 9 with a reusable first stage. The aim is to shave launch costs.
The company has successfully been able to recover the first stage of a rocket after it parachuted into the ocean or on solid land, but multiple attempts to land on a robotic barge have failed. Officials say the company is close, as the last attempt in January 2016 failed simply because a strut on one of the landing legs did not deploy as expected.

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