Have you ever wondered soon we could travel in space, just like we travel around the world? Are you interested in space travel? Do you want to travel in space, just like we make journeys on earth? This dream would come true shortly.
SpaceX is the only private company revolutionising the aerospace industry by making affordable spaceflight in reality.
HOW IS IT MAKING SPACE TRAVEL CHEAP, AND WHAT TYPE OF ROCKET DID THEY USE TILL NOW?
They are manufacturing reusable rockets, which in turn break down the cost and thus make it cheaper to travel. SpaceX’s family of Falcon launch vehicles are the first and only orbital class rockets capable of re-flight. SpaceX's first rocket was the Falcon 1, a two-stage liquid fuelled craft designed to send small satellites into Earth orbit.
Falcon 1 became the first privately developed, fully liquid fuelled launch vehicle to go into orbit around the Earth. This rocket is also cheaper than the rockets that NASA and other private companies have built. The cost was reduced because of the engine that they used, named Merlin. SpaceX designed it. The vehicle has been launched a total of five times. After three failed launch attempts, Falcon 1 achieved orbit on its fourth attempt. After five attempts, Falcon 1 was retired and succeeded by Falcon-9.
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FALCON-9
Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket, and it is the world’s first orbital class (it travels only up to orbit) reusable rocket. It is mainly used to transport people (astronauts) and payloads. For a rocket, the payload can be a satellite, space probe, or spacecraft carrying humans, animals, or cargo. The number 9 refers to the number of Merlin engines that power the rocket.
What is so special about Falcon 9 rocket?
Out of 209 launches that have taken place till now, 167 successful landings and 144 total re-flights have taken place. The number of payloads consists of satellites and other stuff launched into space through Falcon 9.
Dragon is a spacecraft launched to the International Space Station by Falcon 9 rocket, and it is the first privately developed spacecraft to visit the space station, and it is also the first spacecraft to deliver astronauts to the space station and return to earth safely.
Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) are a series of flights awarded by NASA for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on commercially operated spacecraft and the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) was also a NASA program to coordinate the development of vehicles for the delivery of crew and cargo to the International Space Station by private companies.
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| Dragon Spacecraft (source: SpaceX) |
Dragon spacecraft had been selected to resupply the space station after the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. The Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 booster are under contracts from NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CC Dev) program and its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. Now, the Falcon 9 is succeeded by the Falcon Heavy Rocket.
Falcon Heavy Rocket
Falcon Heavy is similar to Falcon 9. It's like a 2.0 version of the Falcon 9 rocket. Many changes had been made to falcon nine, and it transformed into a Falcon Heavy rocket to carry more payload to orbit. It is composed of three reusable Falcon 9 nine-engine cores, whose 27 Merlin engines together generate more than 5 million pounds of thrust at lift-off.
The fun fact is that for the first Falcon Heavy flight test (to check whether the rocket performed up to the mark), Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car, was used as a dummy payload, and now it has become an artificial satellite to the sun. A total of 5 launches have taken place till now. The rocket booster in this launch vehicle (rocket) is also reusable.
Finally, the main motive in the family of Falcon launch vehicles (rockets) is to carry crew and cargo payloads up to hundreds of metric tonnes to space, and the rocket boosters are reusable, which reduces a lot of costs for space travelling and thus making space travel cheaper.
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