SPACEX: THE FUTURE AND DISRUPTOR OF SPACE EXPLORATION

Space exploration has been a centralized industry controlled by the government. NASA, being the most prominent Space Exploration company, has been a household name for decades after the successful launch of the Apollo Program. The Apollo program was a mission to land man to the moon. This program lasted in a period between 1961 to 1972. The program came to light after US perception of the Soviet Union lead in space exploration. This invariably led to the then president of the United States, John F. Kennedy submitting a request to the congress to commit the federal government to a program to land man on the moon by the end of the 1960s.

The Apollo program was one of the most expensive space missions ever which amounted to more than $20 billion in the then currency value. In today’s estimate, that is around $223 billion. This is approximately half of the nominal GDP of Nigeria as at 2019.

Since we already have a government owned space exploration company which is NASA what then is the mission of SpaceX and what are their intentions towards space exploration?

First let’s start with the quote from Elon Musk:

“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great and that’s what being a space-faring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars”.

Elon Musk has been an advocate for green innovation. Innovation targeted towards solving world problems. He sold his first company, which is currently referred to as PayPal, to eBay for almost a billion dollars. This is enough money to settle and rest for your entire life or probably buy private islands in the Bahamas. But he had better dreams for the future. He started SpaceX in 2002 with the purpose of reducing space exploration costs and also an adventure towards colonizing Mars. Call him crazy but he definitely knows what he is doing.

The big question now is, “how does an entrepreneur with no knowledge about space exploration set up a space company to launch rockets into space?” This was the moment when Elon had to embark on a journey to study space and rocket technology. At this point, he had amassed the requisite knowledge needed for his space company. The next phase was to buy rockets which will serve as a foundation towards launching rockets into space. Elon visited Russia which have been a supporting country to the United States in sending rockets into space. His goal was to buy cheap rockets from the Russian government. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned as the prices given were beyond his budget. On his way back, he realized that he could build his own rockets in-house. This was after he estimated that the total cost of raw materials needed to build the rockets in-house by applying vertical integration was just 3% of the selling price of the rockets from the Russian government.

As of 2002, SpaceX started recruiting engineers for its rockets. The company grew rapidly, from 160 employees in November 2005 to 1,100 in 2010,3,800 employees and contractors by October 2013, nearly 5,000 by late 2015, and about 6,000 in April 2017.As of November 2017, the company had grown to nearly 7,000, and was 8,000 in May 2020.

E means of minimizing the cost of rocket launch to space is to create reusable boosters. With the NASA launch program, the boosters function mainly as a thruster which propels the shuttle to orbit. After the first stage of separation, the boosters' lands back into the ocean and is practically not reusable. If the booster is capable of being reusable, the cost of rocket launch will decrease drastically.

Elon pitched the idea of reusable rockets as early as 2010. A concept that engineers have debunked, its possibility for ages stating that it is impractical and unnecessary. With the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in 2013, this concept came into reality. The falcon 9 boosters were able to arrive at the landing site successfully. This was one of greatest moments in space history and also a turning point for SpaceX as the company was near bankruptcy due to previous test failures and the global financial recession.

SpaceX during their 10-year span of operations have notable achievements that no other space company has been able to attain. Some of these achievements include but are not limited to the following:

• The first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit (Falcon 1 flight 4 on September 28, 2008)
• The first private company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Dragon C2+ on May 25, 2012)
• The first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (SES-8 on Falcon 9 flight 7 on December 3, 2013)
• The first relaunch and landing of a used orbital rocket stage (B1021 Falcon 9 flight 32 on March 30, 2017)
• The first private company to send a human-rated spacecraft to space (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on March 2, 2019)
• The first private company to autonomously dock a spacecraft to the International Space Station (Crew Dragon Demo-1, on Falcon 9 flight 69 on March 3, 2019)

2020 might just be the most horrific year ever with the pandemic still ongoing and the fight for racism reincarnated but at least, we have something to celebrate for. As of May 2020, SpaceX achieved two new records. These include:

• The first private company to send humans into orbit (Crew Dragon Demo-2 on May 30, 2020).
• The first private company to send humans to the International Space Station Crew Dragon Demo-2 on May 31, 2020)

The Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission also represents the first trip to orbit from US soil in a decade. This was a great moment for humanity and future space tourism enthusiasts like me. I witnessed the event live on the SpaceX YouTube channel and it was definitely my first time experiencing a rocket launch live. Thanks to Rob and Doug for their willingness to partake in such a journey into the ISS.

I am just a student studying a course specialty in International Business. I might not be an engineer but that does not prohibit me from expanding my knowledge on space travel.

SpaceX at the moment have positioned themselves as the leading private space exploration company. With all that they have achieved, let's bump on a ride and witness what their next adventures would be and most importantly, their plan to embark on a mission to Mars by 2022.

Other private space exploration companies to watch out for are Blue Origin owned by Jeff Bezos and Virgin Galactic owned by Richard Branson.

Thanks for making it this far and please share your thoughts on the comment section.

Originally published at https://cypranakubude.blogspot.com on June 14, 2020.