Internet Entrepreneur Now Targets Space Industry
Space
Exploration Technologies Corporation, the third company founded by
successful Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, today announced the
successful firing of the company's Falcon rocket main engine. Musk,
31, who previously co-founded popular online payment service
PayPal(TM) and enterprise software company Zip2 Corp., founded
SpaceX last June, with the goal of developing launch vehicles that
will set new benchmarks for reliable and low-cost access to
space.
"Satellites and spacecraft urgently need a more reliable and
cost- effective launch vehicle than the options available today.
SpaceX is confident that our Falcon rocket will achieve that end in
the near future," said Elon Musk, SpaceX Chairman and CEO. "In only
nine months we've designed, built and initiated testing of our
rocket's main engine, which is a testament to the capability and
determination of the SpaceX team to deliver on promised goals in
record time."
"This
is the most successful engine test program I have managed in more
than 15 years of rocket engine development," said Tom Mueller,
SpaceX Vice President of Propulsion and former head of liquid
rocket propulsion development at TRW Space and Electronics. "It is
all the more exceptional given that the engine is a clean sheet
design with several new technology innovations."
In initial tests, the liquid oxygen and kerosene engine, named
Merlin, achieved full expected thrust of 60,000 lbs and a
combustion efficiency of 93%. With further testing, the company
expects to exceed a 96% efficiency level. This compares well with
the much larger Saturn V Moon rocket's F-1 engine, which used the
same propellant combination, but achieved only 93.5%
efficiency.
About the Falcon:
The company's initial rocket, named Falcon, is being offered for
$6 million per flight to orbit -- less than one-third the cost of
currently-available options. Although the Falcon design draws upon
the ideas of many prior launch vehicle programs, SpaceX is
developing the entire vehicle from the ground up, including both
engines, the turbo-pump, the cryogenic tank structure and the
guidance system. Falcon is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and kerosene
powered rocket capable of placing half a ton into low Earth orbit
in the basic configuration and one and a half tons with strap-on
liquid boosters.
Falcon is expected to be ready for launch by late 2003, with the
actual liftoff date subject to Air Force, NASA and FAA approval.
Following this vehicle, SpaceX will develop a large three-stage
rocket using the first and second stages of the Falcon as its
second and third stages. That vehicle will compete in the
heavy-lift payload class currently occupied by Arianespace, Boeing,
Lockheed, China Aerospace and Russia's Krunichev.