Elon Musk About The Development of Spacex

The Foundation of SpaceX

The company SpaceX was founded by Elon Reeve Musk in 2002. Born on June 28, 1971, in a South African family, Musk showed an early interest in inventions and computers. By the age of 12, he had sold his first software, a game he created called Blaster. Musk pursued a degree in Physics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and later moved to Stanford University in California in 1992 to complete his PhD in energy physics. He became an American entrepreneur and businessman, founding X.com (later PayPal) in 1999 and Tesla Motors in 2003. The headquarters of SpaceX is located in Los Angeles (Vance, 2015).

Elon Musk's Vision for SpaceX

Elon Musk was driven by a passion for extending human reach beyond Earth. In 2001, after selling his company PayPal to eBay, he earned millions of dollars that could turn his visionary ideas into reality. Musk sought to create something revolutionary that could enable humans to reach Mars. At that time, NASA's budget was limited, and public awareness of space exploration was minimal. Musk proposed the 'Mars Oasis' project to spark public interest in outer space. His idea was to send a small greenhouse to Mars, containing seeds that could grow and sustain new life on the Martian surface (Hawking, 2018).

Challenges and Innovations

Reaching Mars required a substantial budget and advanced rocket technology. In 2001, Musk's team consulted with experts in the USA and traveled to Russia, but the technology and products were prohibitively expensive. Despite efforts to negotiate prices, they returned empty-handed. Musk's calculations revealed that the raw materials for manufacturing a rocket constituted only 3% of its sales price, with 85% of the rocket being produced in-house. This realization led to the concept of creating a cost-efficient rocket, which eventually resulted in the establishment of SpaceX in 2002 (Zubrin, 2011).

The Birth of Falcon

SpaceX's plans soon turned into action with the creation of its first rocket, named 'Falcon.' Recognizing the need for powerful engines to propel their rockets, the company began developing them in-house. The next step involved testing the rockets before launching them into space. SpaceX acquired a site in Texas, previously used during World War II for testing explosions. Initially, the company had only three employees working on rocket development, but it has since grown to nearly 6,000 employees. This growth reflects the increasing ambition and capacity of SpaceX to achieve its goals (Berger, 2017).

References:

• Vance, A. (2015). Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. HarperCollins.
• Hawking, S. (2018). Brief Answers to the Big Questions. Bantam Books.
• Zubrin, R. (2011). The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must. Free Press.
• Berger, E. (2017). Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX. William Morrow.