9 achievements SpaceX

What made one of the companies Elon musk for 13 years.

When in 2002 the entrepreneur-billionaire Elon Musk founded SpaceX, no one could imagine what success he will bring to the company.

In December SpaceX has fulfilled a long-held dream Mask on the fleet of reusable rockets: Falcon 9 have conquered outer space and returned to Earth completely unharmed.

This incredible success is just one of the series of achievements of SpaceX. The company is paving the way to a new era of space flight, unlike anything mankind has seen before.

Here are nine main achievements of the Mask and his company, is able to change the space industry.

1. SpaceX remains the fastest growing operator space launches in the world


In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX, intending to make a revolution in the space industry. The beginning was slow: by the end of 2002, the company employed 14 employees, and by November 2005 the number increased only to 160 people. There are currently more than 4 thousand specialists and it is the fastest growing operator space launches in the world.

2. SpaceX creates and launches its own missiles


SpaceX is one of the few companies that combines the functions of an operator and manufacturer of aerospace products. In other words, SpaceX develops and manufactures most of the rockets and components, including the famous Merlin 1D engines for the Falcon 9.

3. The rocket SpaceX is the cheapest on the market Because most of the components SpaceX develops its own, the company became one of the most formidable players in the market space flights. In 2014, Elon Musk has offered his services to the US air force, saying that everyone is launching satellites into orbit using rockets his company costing just $ 90 million. For comparison, the primary competitor United Launch Alliance costing five times the price of 460 million 4. 2008 — a crucial year for SpaceX


Six years after founding SpaceX performed a successful launch of the first rocket, the Falcon 1 into orbit. For the first time in the history of the private space company has independently built and launched a rocket into space on liquid fuel.

5. Helps SpaceX space science By 2012, SpaceX completed development of the carrier rocket of the next generation Falcon 9 and built Dragon spacecraft able to dock with the International space station. In may 2012, SpaceX became the first private company whose apparatus is docked with the ISS and delivered a payload into orbit.

Today, SpaceX remains the only one who has a vehicle that can deliver and return large ISS science payloads that is critical to space science. The Russian Soyuz is designed to transport people, not research projects.

6. The Falcon 9 the only rocket in the world, able to complete the mission in case of failure of one engine


In the first stage of the Falcon 9 involves nine Merlin 1D engines. If one of them fails during launch, the rocket will be able to continue the mission and dump the cargo into space. For comparison, the first stage rockets, Orbital Antares and the Atlas V is based on one or two giant engines. If one of them fails, the rocket is simply not enough power to reach the first cosmic speed.

7. In 2012-2013, SpaceX managed to do what nobody has been able To 2013, SpaceX has remained a pioneer in many areas of the private space sector, but the rest of the world has not seen in the achievements of the company nothing extraordinary: government agencies like NASA and Roscosmos have been launched missiles of various types and purposes.

That all changed in 2012, when SpaceX began testing the Grasshopper — the first rocket to be reusable. For the first time the world witnessed something revolutionary — missiles, able to return to Earth after takeoff. In 2013, Grasshopper is replaced by a new generation.

8. Musk has filed a lawsuit against the government, objecting to the monopoly on the market of space launches


In 2014, Musk filed a lawsuit against the Federal government, objecting to the monopoly, granting the right of only United Launch Alliance to enter into very lucrative contracts with the air force for launches in the interests of national security.

According to the Mask, SpaceX can do the same for the fifth part of the value — this will not only help the air force, but will benefit the American taxpayer. Later the court confirmed the right of SpaceX to compete for contracts, and in 2015 the company has passed the appropriate certification.

9. SpaceX is the pioneer of a new era of space flight based on reusable rockets In December, SpaceX conducted a successful launch and landing of the first stage of the Falcon 9. Previous attempts have been unsuccessful. The Falcon 9 became the first reusable rocket, successfully landed after the mission. Unlike a Grasshopper or New Shepard production company of Jeff Bezos Blue Origin, the flight was not a test, and was performed with payload: the rocket put into orbit 11 satellites Orbcomm. published

 

P. S. And remember, only by changing their consumption — together we change the world! ©

Join us in Facebook , Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki

Source: insider.pro/EN/article/60021/