The unique company known as SpaceX first began when founder and multimillionaire Elon Musk sought to turn his love of space into a profitable business. Musk dreamed of reigniting the public’s interest in space travel, while simultaneously making it actually accessible. Eventually, the goal is to send enough supplies into space in order to create a sustainable environment in which humans could live at least semi-permanently.
SpaceX now creates some of the highest performance rockets and offers space travel/cargo related services to the public at record-low prices. Four years ago, SpaceX’s dragon capsule became the first commercial rocket to go into orbit and return safely. Although no other company has yet to figure out how, SpaceX offers the lowest pricing per pound compared to any other company.
Both of Falcon 9’s (SpaceX’s main rocket) stages are powered by RP1 and liquid oxygen, so only one type of engine is required. Both are the same diameter and are constructed from the same aluminum-lithium alloy, reducing the amount of tooling and the number of processes and resulting in huge savings for the company. The engine used to power the rocket is called a pintle. “Unlike most rocket engines, in which droplets of fuel and oxidizer are sprayed into the combustion chamber through an injector plate resembling a shower head, the pintle uses a needle-like injector that’s more like the nozzle on a garden hose.” (Chaikin) Not only is this engine cheaper, but also less suseptable to combustion which proves safer for all involved.
Now with over 4000 employees, their contract with NASA is valued at $1.6 billion.
With the intention of making space travel available to the masses, SpaceX has also invested heavily in redesigning the bulky astronaut suits that we have seen ever since Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon. The company wants to redesign the suits to be more comfortable and suitable for the average consumer, while also using the new suit design as a symbol for the company’s futuristic ideology.
Resources:
http://www.airspacemag.com/space/is-spacex-changing-the-rocket-equation-132285884/?page=2
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-01-08/spacex-space-suit-will-combine-function-with-design
http://www.spacex.com/