The Falcon 9 rocket is used to bring satellites, Dragon cargo and Crew Dragon spaceships to and fro.
The International Space Station is one of the many uses of the company. In October of 2012 Dragon made the first private spaceship visit there and since then has run more than 25 cargo missions. NASA and other customers have used the Falcon 9 for crewed missions to the International Space Station.
In line with the desire of Musk to drive down the cost of spaceflight, Falcon 9 is built as a reuse system. The rocket's first stage can be landed on land or on a drone ship. It is the ride of choice for the Starlink satellite system, which has been tasked for security missions.
There are 8 ways that SpaceX has changed spaceflight.
The Crew Dragon is used by NASA and other companies to carry out space missions. The missions can go to the International Space Station or to low-Earth orbit.
There are quick facts about Falcon 9.
The height is 228.6 feet (70 meters).
The diameter is 12 feet.
1,194,000 lbs. is the mass. 541,300 lbs.
Payload to low Earth orbit is 28,991 lbs. The weight is 13,150 kilograms.
The payload to the GTO is 10,692 lbs. The weight is 4,850 kilograms.
The first stage has a burn time of 162 seconds. At sea level, the thrust is 1.53 million lbs. There are 7,426 kN.
The second stage had a burn time of 397 seconds. The thrust was 210,000 lbs. 934 kN
The rocket has two stages. The first stage has nine Merlin engines and aluminum-lithium alloy tanks.
The first stage tank is a slightly larger version of the second stage tank. It is connected to the Falcon 9 first stage via an interstage made of carbon-fiber aluminum-core composite.
The grid fins that come out of the first stage are used to guide the rocket to a soft landing. The legs emerge from the rocket a few moments before it lands.
The first mention of the Falcon 9 was in a press release. The company said that the rocket was developed in response to customer demand.
At the time, the lighter Falcon 1 rocket was being developed and the intermediate class Falcon 5 was being planned for. Early listed customers of the rocket included companies such as Bigelow Aerospace.
It cost $300 million to develop the vehicle. NASA provided funding during the company's early years. One of NASA's sought-after commercial orbital transportation services contracts was worth up to $278 million for SpaceX if it met all its goals.
In the final stage of the NASA Commercial Crew Program, two companies were allocated money. The development contract gave the company $2.6 billion and it launched its first space station mission with people on board in 2020. NASA buys more missions to fulfill space station needs.
SpaceX received supplier status for the National Reconnaissance Office, which launches classified missions that require a high degree of secrecy and technical sufficiency.
The first multiple engine firings took place in January 2008, after the primary structure of Falcon 9 was finished. The full mission-length firing of the engines took place in November of that year. In an update to its followers, the California-based company boasted that the rocket's ability to compensate for failed engines in flight was a selling point.
The Falcon 9 rocket was launched at Cape Canaveral. It would be several months before the rocket flew into space, but the configuration was necessary to test all the systems in the next year.
The rocket was supposed to be sent up in 2009, but the actual launch date was June 7, 2010. The rocket experienced an unexpected roll during launch. On December 8, 2010, Falcon 9 sent its first Dragon back to Earth.
There were some problems in the early days of Dragon missions. An engine problem forced an aborted test flight for Dragon before it flew to the International Space Station. The first official cargo run to the station was marred by an engine problem. An Obrcomm satellite fell out of the sky five days after it was launched.
The most catastrophic moment for Falcon 9 was in June 2015, when the rocket exploded in mid-air as it was carrying a Dragon spaceship to the International Space Station. The flights were suspended for several months because of a faulty strut. In 2016 the company resumed flights and has continued to launch.
There is a gallery about the Falcon and Dragons of SpaceX.
There are other rockets in the fleet that are also providing essential services for spaceflight.
The Falcon Heavy is a large rocket. Two Falcon 9 first stages serve as strap-on boosters, and it has a stronger central core.
We can look at the trends for the rocket's use that show the importance of its work to the company.
The Starlink fleet is a set of broadband satellites intended to deliver internet service to remote areas. The Federal Aviation Administration is planning to grow the satellite fleet to tens of thousands of applications.
The International Space Station has both cargo and people on it. It flies the Dragon cargo spaceship to deliver supplies and equipment to the complex. It has been sending Crew Dragon missions for NASA. It began sending crewed missions on behalf of Houston-based Axiom Space in 2022.
It can send people to other places. The Crew Dragon was lifted into the air by a Falcon 9 in 2021, carrying four individuals for an all-private mission to raise money and awareness for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis.
Shift4 billionaire and leader of the mission, Jared Isaacman, bankrolled the project. The Polaris Program is a set of space missions he is paying for. The first of the series, Polaris Dawn, should launch in 2022.
The first voyage ofFalcon Heavy was in February of last year, and it flew a mannequin named Starman to space.
The spaceship system called Starship is expected to replace both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. NASA has selected the system that will land Artemis astronauts on the moon, and Musk wants to use it for future human Mars missions. The Federal Aviation Administration is waiting on environmental approval for a test of a new spaceship.
There is more information on the website for the Falcon 9 rocket. You can stay up to date on the launches on the company's social media accounts. You can watch the launches and landings on the company's website.
The home of SpaceX is a part of Axiom Space.
NRO Launch: A pictorial History will be published in December of 2021. There is a picture book on the National Reconnaissance Office.
NASA has a website called the "NASA Blogs: Spacex".
The Falcon 9 will be available in 2022.
TheFalcon User's Guide will be published in September of 2021.
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