This article was originally published on our website: sportoport.com
Elon Musk, the famous CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, is turning all the sci-fi fantasies into reality through his cool inventions. The South African born billionaire has been in the news one way or another, especially after his plans about the colonization of Mars.
Musk and one of his remarkable creations, SpaceX have seen a sudden hike in popularity during this decade. Particularly because the game-changing combo is going to have its first crewed mission to Mars in just two years!
Recently, Elon Musk and SpaceX were in the limelight as they launched their 32nd spacecraft of the year and made a record achievement. These achievements made us dig deeper into the details, and we know that you’re here to do the same. Below are 20 interesting facts about SpaceX that you never knew.
The Beginning of an Epic Adventure
Since its inception, SpaceX has gone through incredible highs and lows. The company was founded by Musk in 2002 and today it is the big wheel in rocket missions and space travel programs.
Can you think of any bigger customer than the U.S. government itself? Well, SpaceX has acquired this biggest customer by offering its vehicles for various missions and satellite launches for NASA and the U.S. government.
SpaceX had the world at its feet when it launched the orbital payload in 2008 for the first time. People around the globe were amazed by this private spaceflight company launching its crewless cargo vehicles to the ISS (International Space Station). Today, Musk is the most popular business figure, particularly because of his gambit to acquire Twitter and the mission to conquer Mars!
Tony Stark or the Real-Life Iron-Man?
Did you know that a part of the movie Iron-Man 2 was shot inside SpaceX? And that too with Musk on screen with Tony Stark?
After Musk’s appearance in this movie, fans have been comparing the duo, some of them even consider Musk as the real-life Iron Man. Well, we agree that there are similarities between the two because both like to invent cool stuff.
Besides that, both tech-geeks have a huge fan following and inspire many people around the world. They have also appeared in countless headlines and posts across social media. So yes, this is a worthy comparison.
The Road to Success
Musk gets extreme pleasure developing cool technologies just for the sake of naming them in an even cooler way. He started his business endeavors in 1995 and founded Zip2, which was bought by a renowned company Compaq for $307 million after a year.
After selling this company, Musk found a way to keep the game going. He founded another company, X.com, which specialized in monetary transactions. This company later became PayPal, which was acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion.
Next, Musk used this money again for more significant investments. He spent $100 million using the investment to create SpaceX (Space Exploration) in 2002 to manufacture cost-effective rockets. Though SpaceX dealt with a few disasters, finally it has hit the jackpot as it has the privilege of being the first private company to send astronauts to orbit and a craft to the ISS.
Fiery Failures but SpaceX Had it Going On
SpaceX faced a history of fiery failures but we still see those failures as an inspiration. The best thing to learn here is that even after facing multiple setbacks, the company was determined to move forward.
During the late 2020 and early 2021, SpaceX had lost four Starships in landing attempts after test launches. One of the explosions occurred on Musk’s birthday and there were two payloads for NASA onboard too. After that incident, NASA requested huge discounts for contracts with SpaceX.
Talking about these unsuccessful attempts, Musk termed these explosions as ‘actually not good’ and that their company was assessing the damage. However, Musk has been determined to achieve more despite these explosions. According to Musk, ‘When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor’.
Why did SpaceX Starships Keep Blowing Up?
Failure is success in progress, and that holds true for SpaceX. In 2015, the Falcon 9 exploded because it was over-pressurized due to a faulty strut. The strut was holding a helium tank and it eventually broke which caused the explosion.
Besides that, the company’s SN10 Starship rocket exploded as soon as it landed safely after a high altitude test. According to experts, the explosion was because of a leakage in the propeller tank of the rocket.
Some reports also claim that a methane leak could have caused the blast. Moreover, SN8 and SN9 had also exploded when they failed to land properly unlike SN10 that landed successfully but still exploded.
Rise of the Falcon and Space Flights
Things weren’t as easy for SpaceX as they are now: the Falcon1 lasted only for a minute after its launch. After that, the second and third attempts were unsuccessful, too, and SpaceX was close to bankruptcy.
Musk didn’t lose hope and made the fourth attempt with the last funds the company had. This was the first successful attempt which paved the way for the success of space flights.
Musk is not only known for his business insights and tactics, but for his sense of humor, too. The CEO has named his technologies in an interesting way, perhaps he thinks of them as mythical creatures that are ready to conquer space. For instance, his Dragon rocket gets its name from ‘Puff the magic dragon’ while the Falcon rockets are inspired by Star Wars’ Han Solo’s spaceship ‘Millennium Falcon’.
SpaceX Dropped a Bombshell
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg decided to put Facebook’s first satellite in orbit and he gave this task to Musk. The satellite had $200 million in cargo, and had to provide internet to the world, especially the developing countries.
However, the rocket exploded due to divergence in the launch pad. Showing disappointment towards the failure, Zuckerberg added that the destruction of the Facebook satellite would be devastating for many people across the globe.
Thankfully, Facebook had already developed another technology system called Aquila, due to which the connectivity was restored. Later on, it was revealed that the satellite system didn't solely belong to Facebook - rather, it was a partnership with a French company dealing with satellites called Eutelsat.
Mission Mars and the Concept of Colonization
While one of the primary goals of SpaceX is to reduce space transportation costs, it is also working towards the concept of the colonization of Mars. Musk is planning to send two cargo and two crewed ships to Mars by 2024 to fulfill his dreams of taking humans to space and beyond.
In fact, developing high-end spaceships and technologies was one of the main reasons Musk founded his company. Back in 2002 it was very expensive to even think about landing on Mars, but things have changed now.
Thus, Musk decided to work on the development of the aerospace industry and now we know that he can actually achieve his goal of sending people to Mars. He's one of the few men on Earth who's capable of making that dream come true!
To Mars and Back Together
Talking about his plans to send people on Mars, Musk said that he can transport passengers for as little as $500,000 per seat. He says that he plans to modify the dragon spacecraft so that it could take humans to Mars one day.
To colonize Mars, SpaceX designed a reusable transportation system that could carry cargo and crew to Earth’s orbit and beyond. The transportation system would land on Mars ideally at an estimated speed of 7.5 kilometers per second and decelerate gradually aerodynamically.
Besides that, the company had launched the Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, which completed its first orbital spaceflight mission successfully with private citizens on board. All the crew members on this flight had been trained by SpaceX prior to the mission. Looking at these advancements, we can say that Musk will achieve his goals of building a full-size city on the Red Planet.
The Reason Behind Musk’s Interest in the Red Planet
The SpaceX founder says that a million humans would be living on Mars by 2060. He plans to make humans a multiplanetary species and he’s got his reasons.
One of the main reasons he considers human transportation to the Red Planet necessary is his belief that any life-ending event on Earth could completely end the human species here.
On the other hand, humanity can continue to exist if they’re able to survive on Mars. Besides global warming, climate changes, and extreme weather changes, any sudden meteor strike could eradicate the world and end the human race. In short, Musk thinks that it would be a wise idea to shift humans to Earth’s redder neighbor soon.
Starman’s Epic Trip to Space in Tesla!
SpaceX loves to do cute things, too, and the Starman in cherry red Tesla is an example of that. The company’s Starman mannequin took a road trip to space in Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster.
The mannequin astronaut in a SpaceX suit driving Musk’s Tesla is nothing short of epic. The Tesla CEO did this to make the rocket launch more interesting. In 2018, he put his own Tesla Roadster in the rocket and SpaceX also provided a live video of the car floating in space for four hours after Falcon Heavy’s launch.
This adventure of the mannequin astronaut driving Tesla is one of the examples of Musk’s plans to make space more liveable for humans.
SpaceX Space Suits Become a New Breed
NASA astronauts had the time of their lives when they got to wear SpaceX's new space suits that had a touch of movie-star look. These astronauts were the first to wear the SpaceX space suits which they wore during the Demo-2 test flight to the ISS.
The company came up with this innovative space suit to replace the traditional ‘pumpkin suit’ which the astronauts can wear during their flights to space.
The best thing about these space suits is that they can be customized to fit the individual body types and sizes. You can see the crew - 4 astronauts wearing SpaceX space suits during their rehearsal of launch day activities.
It’s Not Just About Rockets
SpaceX is not only about making rockets and designing spaceships, it is also taking the lead in space tourism.
The company created a historic moment when the first tourist flight was sent to orbit. The mission was successful as the four passengers returned victorious after this flight.
None of the crew members were professional astronauts which show that SpaceX is all in for commercial space tourism in the nearest future.
SpaceX Rocket Launches for Half the Price
From successful space flights to joyrides for space tourists, the pioneer rocket launch company, SpaceX has managed to considerable lower the launch cost into space.
This is the company’s major milestone as Musk claims to reduce the Starship launch costs to less than $10 million within two to three years.
The reason for this reduced cost is the company’s ability to create completely reusable rockets. This has reduced the cost dramatically and it makes sense, too. When airplanes can be reused for flights, why not rockets?
Reusable Rockets and Landing of Boosters
SpaceX’s aims to recover the costs of its rocket launches, and currently all of its rockets are partially reusable. To demonstrate successful use of reusable rockets, the company landed the booster of its Falcon 9 rocket in the Atlantic ocean.
The booster in this picture is a 160 feet tall portion of the rocket that is equipped with nine of its engines.
The landing was done on a floating platform in the ocean and it was done to figure out how effectively the rockets can be used with a reduced cost of access to space.
The Dragon Capsule is Reusable, Too!
After Musk proved that SpaceX could reuse its rockets, he demonstrated that he can reuse its Dragon capsule too. The company had successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket that was equipped with a previously used Dragon capsule.
The demonstration was done in 2017 as SpaceX’s 11th mission to transfer the supplies to the ISS.
The reuse of the Dragon capsule was considered a great step towards Mission Mars as it would reduce the transportation costs tremendously.
Tesla Roadster with a Rocket Boost!
Are you still waiting for the High-End Tesla Roadster? Count us in because we’re waiting for it too (just to see others buying it).
After the debut of the Tesla Roadster in 2008, Musk promised another model that could achieve a 0 to 60 mph acceleration within 1.1 seconds using the SpaceX package.
The vehicle includes rocket thrusters that will boost acceleration and can even make the Tesla fly. Wow! Seems like the futuristic image of flying cars is going to be true soon.
Full-Scale Hyperloop Testing
Hyperloop is an ultimate high speed ground transportation system, and you guessed it right, it was proposed as a concept by the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.
The main aim of this mission is to achieve ultra high transportation speeds and connect city center to city center. Moreover, it also claims to be climate neutral as it will use efficient and fully electrical operations.
The transportation system is still a theoretical one, but Musk’s startup, The Boring Company, is going to conduct full-scale testing of this transportation system. The system will be able to carry passengers at speeds of 600 miles per hour in autonomous electric pods through a tube.
Big Falcon Rocket for a Sustainable Trip to the Red Neighbor
SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket or BFR was designed to replace the Falcon 9, Dragon Rocket and Falcon Heavy.
The rocket could reach Earth's orbit and would later be able to carry out successful trips to Mars. However, Musk renamed the BFR and changed the transportation part of the craft to ‘Starship’ and the booster part to ‘Super Heavy’.
The craft is capable of carrying 100 passengers or 100 tons of cargo to Mars. That's enough to start a small colony there!
Starlink - Musk’s Satellite Internet Venture!
SpaceX is planning to design a space-based internet communication system. Their internet venture named ‘Starlink’ will fill mobile network dead zones in the T-Mobile partnership.
The aim is to create around 12,000 satellites by the mid 2020s to enable global broadband connection, even in those places where there’s less or no internet access.
So, the billionaire SpaceX CEO is at it again - this time with a promise to deliver high-speed broadband internet to everyone across the globe.
