Founded in 2002 by billionaire Elon Musk, Space X was developed to spark interest in space travel again after a lull in interest. The primary target of the SpaceX Launch was the private sector and to finally be able to send expeditions to Mars. Since its inception, Space X has made tremendous strides in space technology and has many firsts under its belt including:
- The first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket(2008)
- The first privately funded company to launch(The Falcon 9)
- The first privately funded company to orbit and recover a spacecraft.
- The first private company to send a spacecraft to the international space station
- The first private company to send a satellite into geosynchronous orbit
And now, Space X is all set to launch the world’s most powerful Rocket that will launch in 2017. Introducing the long anticipated SpaceX Falcon Heavy:
Features of SpaceX ‘Falcon Heavy’
The $90 million dollar rocket can be able to carry a weight of 54 million metric tons, which is equivalent to 119,000 pounds or a fully loaded Boeing 747 with fuel, luggage, crew and passengers. It will also have the ability to send crewed missions to other planets, including Mars. The Falcon Heavy will also have double capacity compared to its predecessor the Delta 4 Heavy, and all these features will be a third cheaper.
According to Space X, the rocket will come equipped with a Falcon Heavy Launch Pad, a full set of reusable launch vehicle technologies and a new liquid methane based rocket engine.
Setback for this Space X project
For a company that has been in existence for around 15 years, and achieved so much, it has not always been smooth sailing, though. And Space X has had its share of setbacks and turbulent times. One of the major ones was when the Falcon 9 rocket exploded while refueling, before take-off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in September.
“I was trying to understand why rockets are so expensive. Obviously, the lowest cost, you can do anything for being the spot value of the material constituents,” said Elon Musk, Space X CEO when asked about the difficulties of this project. ”And that is if you had a magic wand and could rearrange the atoms. So there is just a question of how efficient you can be about getting the atoms from raw material state to rocket shape.”
Working with other tech giants to make history
Taking with it $200 million worth of Communication Satellites that the rocket had carried on behalf of Facebook, and also damaging the Company’s launch pad. The cause of the explosion was identified as a ‘combination of liquid helium, advanced carbon fiber composites, and solid oxygen,’ according to the Company’s CEO, Elon Musk.
Space X is ready to put that ugly incident behind it and continue to march towards the future, which has been found in the Falcon Heavy rocket.
For a company that was contracted by NASA to design and supply a launch system capable of providing the various space stations in orbit, and is also the winner of numerous awards including the Space Foundations Space Achievement Award, the only way for this Company is up.
