With new rocket, SpaceX is poised to make a giant leap

[n2doc]

By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
April 5, 2011, 8:00 a.m.

Work is quietly underway in the South Bay on a massive 22-story rocket whose power is rivaled in the U.S. only by the mighty Saturn V rocket, which took man to the moon, in a risky private venture that could herald a new era in space flight.

Dubbed Falcon Heavy, the 27-engine booster is being assembled by rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, at its sprawling complex in Hawthorne where it has about 1,100 workers.

The rocket, which has twice the lifting capability of the next largest launcher built by a U.S. company, is being announced Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington.

"We're embarking on something that's unprecedented in the space industry," Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, told The Times. "This is territory that has only belonged to the U.S. government — with its tens of billions of dollars."

more

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-monster-rocket-20110402,0,6421394.story

[RT Atlanta]

1. Very impressive

I saw the video teaser last night and at the very end it had a silhouette of the rocket that caught my attention. However, I was hoping the announcement regarding "big" meant they were closer to launching a manned flight of the Dragon.

My best wishes to their continued success!

[bananas]

2. greatly reduces launch costs from $10,000/pound to $1,000/pound

"Currently, it costs about $10,000 per pound to reach orbit. Falcon Heavy would cut that price to about $1,000 per pound, Musk said."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/05/us-space-business-rocket-idUSTRE73468B20110405

[Johonny]

3. greatly reduced cost estimate

since they have never launched anything into orbit and regulatory bodies cast negative doubt on their own estimate. We might :) on their estimate a little.

[Posteritatis]

5. Of course, if they "only" halve the to-LEO cost that's still great. (nt)

[LongTomH]

4. I'm a big fan of SpaceX

Something I share with Phil Plait of the Bad Astronomy website. The SpaceX website has more information on the Falcon Heavy launcher, including a really cool animation of Falcon Heavy launch (Just click on the large pic at the top of the page).

All of this comes at a time when the future of NASA-sponsored Heavy Lift Vehicles is in doubt. Keith Cowling at SpaceRef has an article on this; actually, NASA's entire budget is in doubt:

So, while NASA has been ordered to move on with a new approach by the White House backtracked on its plans and Congress won't allow the old program that it also wants to replace to go away. Sound familiar? The biggest complain about the Bush Vision for Space Exploration was that it was big on plans but the budget was never provided when the time came to do so - while NASA was directed to operate as if the money would be there. We all know what happened. Flash forward. Congress is now looking to flatline or cut NASA budget (or not enact new ones) while also playing its own game of telling NASA to do things it simply does not have the budget to do. A new slow motion train wreck is in the making.

The one alternative to government-developed launch vehicles NASA has tried to follow (with White House support) is to procure commercial assets. Congress doesn't want them to do so and seeks to undermine that effort at every turn. Yet, while NASA's new launch vehicles sit inside of ever-changing Powerpoint presentations, SpaceX is launching their new hardware and Orbital is shipping their hardware for launch. Other launch vehicles that are fully operational such as Delta and Atlas can be ordered from a catalog. Viable alternatives sit in their hangars waiting to fly.

<snip>

As stated in his report to Congress, Bolden said that he has to deal with dueling budgets simultaneously - the CR-driven FY 2010 budget that is in force due to the inability for Congress to enact a FY 2011 budget - with a proposed FY 2012 budget about to undergo consideration. So, if you are Bolden, which one do you attempt to implement or at least plan to implement? Answer: all of them. As such you can see why the man is frustrated.

'Bolden' refers to NASA administrator Charles Bolden, the man on the bullseye in all this.

Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX has his eye on the market for providing the heavy lift vehicles needed for manned Mars or asteroid missions. Musk and SpaceX have plans for a new, even more powerful, launcher based on their proposed Merlin 2 engine:

Nonetheless it's well known that SpaceX doesn't intend to rest content with merely trumping the existing Soyuz and Delta IV Heavy. The Falcon Heavy is probably the ultimate that can be achieved using Merlin engines, but SpaceX has plans for a new and more powerful "Merlin 2" engine. Like the Merlin it would burn kerosene rather than difficult-to-handle, costly cryogenic hydrogen: as with the Merlin, this would lower the costs of rockets based on it.

A single Merlin 2 might at first be test-flown in a Falcon 9, rather as the original Merlin was initially tested in the single-engined Falcon 1. The new engine might also be used to enhance the Falcon Heavy.

But after such initial operations, clusters of Merlin 2s could be used to drive new and bigger rockets, just as clustered Merlins drive the 9 and the Heavy. A Merlin 2 version of today's Heavy, using three side-by-side lower stage nine-engine cores, would be at the upper end of the NASA super-heavy-lift requirement - indeed, if it exceeded initial projections as much as the Heavy seems likely to (the Heavy was originally predicted to carry only 30+ tonnes, not 50+) it would be much more powerful than officially required, easily eclipsing the Saturn Vs of yesteryear.

I might add: Also easily eclipsing the expensive, Space Shuttle-derived vehicles that NASA wants. Those vehicles are really unlikely to be available by 2016, given current funding restrictions (Proposed cuts would push back dates even more.), so why not give SpaceX a chance? If Elon Musk can provide more powerful vehicles, sooner and at less cost to taxpayers, more power to him.

Note: I've broken the '4 paragraph rule;' but, the excerpts were from 2 sources.

[Phoonzang]

6. Does anyone know if SpaceX is ever going to be publically traded? nt

[NYC_SKP]

7. Very cool! (nt)