While Elon Musk has embarked on numerous business ventures, arguably a trifecta stands out as defining this remarkable entrepreneur’s exploits. With an initial focus on X (subsequently renamed Twitter) it seemed a promising endeavour, yet its estimated value dropped by nearly 75%, according to Fidelity. Musk’s next venture, Tesla, has surged to a valuation nearly five times that of any other auto manufacturer, despite not offering anything groundbreakingly unique. However, SpaceX, with its subsidiary Starlink, is a testament to Musk’s audacious vision for our future in space.
Launched over two decades ago, SpaceX remodeled the space industry, conquering more launches than any other enterprise. They are notable for their operatively gigantic and potent spacecraft – the Starship – a human-made marvel of 5,000 tonnes. While many see SpaceX as a standard corporation, it veers from convention by not making profit-making its primary goal. Musk saw SpaceX as a means to create vehicles that could facilitate human life on Mars, the precursor for settling Earth’s crimson cousin.
Musk believes in an inevitable terminal event that will cause extinction on our planet, leading him to suggest an alternative path: becoming an inter-planetary species. Mars seems like the ideal candidate due to it being the most welcoming place beyond Earth in our solar system and being relatively close during their respective planets’ orbital alignment. The Martian atmosphere, being predominantly carbon dioxide and receiving adequate sunlight, provides the potential for agricultural growth, provided it is compressed and temperature-regulated.
As early as the beginning of this millennium, Musk, having amassed considerable wealth from PayPal, observed that NASA lacked any concrete plans for Martian missions. Bound by this resolution, he proposed sending a mini experimental greenhouse as the initial phase. The challenge however lay in the rocket procurement, a process Musk found unexpectedly difficult after futile attempts to purchase intercontinental ballistic missiles from Russia, involving numerous intriguing visits.
The scene of American space launches was dominated by the duopoly of United Space Alliance and United Launch Alliance (ULA), both conglomerates of aerospace giants Lockheed and Boeing. ULA was the go-to company for space missions unless clients turned to foreign entities. Seeing this dominance, Musk was driven to disrupt the scenario, thus launching SpaceX to build his own rockets, taking a divergent path from the prevailing liquid hydrogen fuel-based rockets, which, despite its theoretical efficiency, posed challenges due to safety and economic factors.
With a clear vision to decrease the space launch expenditures, SpaceX refrained from using hydrogen fuel. Instead, they turned to the easily procurable and handleable rocket-grade kerosene, or RP-1. With the initial knowledge and experiences garnered from Falcon 1, their single-engined demonstrator rocket, they incorporated their newfound wisdom into the Falcon 9, named for its nine engines.
Falcon 9 swiftly broke into the market with its cost-cutting nature and contemporary design, immediately standing out against the dated and technologically lagging competitors drawn from the mid-20th-century missile programs. But SpaceX didn’t stop there; challenging the primitive, solitary-use rocket model, they set out to engineer a re-usable rocket, aiming to recapture and recycle the first stage – the bulkier and costlier section that provides the initial thrust.
Starting 2015, SpaceX successfully demonstrated landing capabilities on its 20th launch, which has since been repeated 353 times out of its 397 total launches, marking Falcon 9 the most launched orbital rocket from America. The instances of reused first stages stand at a staggering 328, with some units experiencing as many as 23 cycles. The Falcon 9 capabilities extend beyond mere satellite deployment, thanks to the Dragon capsules, which allows NASA cargo and astronaut transportation to and from the International Space Station.
Having captured a considerable portion of the commercial satellite market with the Falcon 9’s re-usability, and securing funding for NASA’s low-orbit manned missions with the Dragon capsule, Musk set his sights on the black budget. SpaceX established their presence in Chantilly, the hub of the National Reconnaissance Office, marking their foray into the confidential space military and intelligence community. The Falcon Heavy was born out of this venture, developed by merging three Falcon 9 first stages, creating the most powerful operating rocket in the world by 2018.
Despite numerous failed attempts by others in the 90s and early 2000s, Musk embarked on low-orbit satellite communications, resulting in the birth of Starlink. The potential in this field was widely recognized, with its feasibility largely questioned due to the high costs involved and the limitations of geostationary satellites for internet and two-way data. Musk was undeterred, perceiving the opportunity in low-orbiting satellites’ latency benefit compared to their traditional counterparts.
Despite uncertainties surrounding the inflow to sustain SpaceX, the advent of Starlink convinced analysts of a noticeable revenue stream. It remained a common belief that Starlink was less about sending others’ equipment to space, morphing SpaceX into a customer it lacked. While the specifics about SpaceX’s finances are sketchy, Musk’s broad investment portfolio provides some assurance. Nonetheless, the revenue procured from Starlink has already left its mark in securing SpaceX’s future.
Undeterred by NASA’s decision to pursue the Space Launch System (SLS), Musk pushed ahead with his Mars aspirations. The Raptor engine, running on affordable and cleaner-burning methane, marked SpaceX’s next step. While the Raptor-studded Starship, a two-stage, fully reusable craft dwarfing any previous ships, impresses with its payload capacity and re-entry capabilities, it also ventures to innovate with a unique landing mechanism for its booster stage onto designated ‘chopstick’ gantries.
After just one exhibit, the fascinating spectacle of the ‘chopstick’ landing raised hopes for Starship missions, especially in-space refueling. A fully fueled Mars-bound Starship in Earth orbit, fitted with landing legs and a heat shield, seems feasible with just eight refueling launches. Once known internally as the Mars Colonial Transporter, and later the Interplanetary Transport System, the development of the Starship markedly outpaces NASA’s Artemis lunar program, leading some to question the need for the Space Launch System.
Musk’s determination errs toward resource efficiency and wishes to unhinge the various bureaucratic battles with Federal Aviation Administration and environmental authorities. Despite SpaceX enmeshed in daunting regulatory struggles, Musk is striving to execute government reform, stating a clear absence of quid pro quo. Whether or not the SLS retains its backing on Capitol Hill in light of SpaceX’s advances is yet to be seen, but a budget reallocation could accelerate the dream of a Martian colony.
Observing Musk’s business maneuvers, one can find room for critique. His undertaking of Twitter/X may now seem coldly rational, acting to mitigate SpaceX’s roadblocks. Tesla’s valuation may appear inflated for a car company. Nevertheless, Musk’s resolute vision and determination embodied in SpaceX’s growth and impact on the stagnant space industry could lead any observer to acknowledge the momentous shift in humanity’s future ushered in by Musk, an incredible legacy still under active creation.
Redefining Space Exploration: Inside the Success of SpaceX appeared first on Real News Now.
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