Where the Falcon Gets Its Wings:
OASIS Visits SpaceX

by Steve Bartlett

A new player is entering the small satellite launch business: El Segundo-based Space Exploration, Inc. (SpaceX) is taking on Boeing in a bid to be the low cost spacelift provider. OASIS members and their guests caught a rare glimpse of the SpaceX facility on June 25 and watched the company's first rocket, the Falcon 1, taking shape.

OASIS members and their guests outside SpaceX's El Segundo facility.

Gwynne Shotwell, the company's Vice President of Business Development, led the local space enthusiasts through the company's fabrication and test area, discussing the company, its founder, and the launch market that SpaceX is pursuing. Established in 2002 by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, the firm is building the Falcon 1 production line solely with private funds. Musk and his employees are working to dramatically lower launch prices below their current level of $4,000 to $10,000 per pound to orbit by using engines, turbopumps, and propellant tanks that are much simpler and easier to fabricate than the industry norm. Many of the company's employees have worked at other launch vehicle providers in the Los Angeles area and learned vital lessons on how to reduce the cost of building and flying rockets.

The OASIS group saw the Falcon 1's first and second stage aluminum propellant tanks, rocket engine thrust structures, payload fairing, and payload support structure on the factory floor. The two-stage rocket uses liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants and features a single, 85,000 pound thrust first stage engine, dubbed “Merlin”, and a 7,500 pound thrust second stage engine, named “Kestrel”. (These engines were at the company's test facility in Texas at the time of the tour and are in the final phases of flight certification test firings.) The Falcon 1 is designed to loft a 670 kilogram satellite into low Earth orbit.

The first flight of the Falcon 1 is scheduled for September of this year and will fly from Vandenberg Air Force Base, near Lompoc. Two subsequent payload customers have already been booked. Besides the Falcon 1, SpaceX is also developing the larger, more capable Falcon 5 rocket. The Falcon 5 is designed to carry a 4,200 kg payload to low Earth orbit and uses five Merlin engines on its first stage and two Kestrel engines on its second stage.

Ms. Shotwell provided SpaceX logo caps to all of the people on the tour. For more information on the company, check out their website at www.spacex.com.

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