The Game Changers- SpaceX
With the immaculate rise of Elon musk atop the wealthiest people list on the planet, the prominence
of all contributing conglomerates companies has been profoundly established. What has been afloat
for quite a while, and can’t be overlooked, is SpaceX’s rise to the vogue. In alignment to the theme,
SpaceX is what needs to be heeded. Envisioning the formulation of affordable spaceflight, Elon Musk
established SpaceX in 2002, that helped usher in the are of commercial space flight. Though success
didn’t come naturally to the company for the initiation. Soon it was established as the only private
company to launch and return an aircraft from the earth’s orbit alongside launching a crewed
aircraft while attaching it to the International Space Station.
The inception of the company was marked with the successful launch of its first Falcon 1, which
didn’t meet the desired end following a fuel tank leak and an entailing spark. Despite the
conundrum, SpaceX had earned millions in launching order, primarily from the US government.
Followed by numerous attempts, September 2008 launch marked SpaceX’s graduation as the first
privately owned company to send a liquid fuelled rocket into the orbit. It took no more than three
months for the company to win NASA’s contract of servicing the ISS (International Space Station).
It wasn’t till 2010, SpaceX launched its first FALCON 9, a bigger, more apparent, with greater heft and
a better capacitated module, that drew attention for its exponentially reasonable 9 engine setup.
Furthering, Falcon 9 broke ground on a launch site for the falcon heavy, a craft the company hoped
would be the first to break the $1,000-per-pound-to-orbit cost barrier and that might one day be
used to transport astronauts into deep space.
Encountering the very plausible reasoning- How does SpaceX out better NASA or How do they both
compete? A backing rebuttal, they don’t, Period. SpaceX is a profit propense privately owned
organisation that envisions expanding to various fields of human evolution, more importantly
making it more conducive. NASA, on the other hand, is a tax-funded government-owned
organisation solely devoted and converged towards discoveries for scientific progression. NASA is
also vastly larger, spending tens of billions of dollars every year on hundreds of major projects while
SpaceX spends millions of dollars on a select few. And erst lies upon the economies of scale.
That being said, the recent successes of SpaceX mark its collaboration with NASA and primitively
becoming the first privately owned organisation to encapsulate two NASA Scientists, Bob Behnken
and Doug Hurley on their mission. SpaceX currently operates with two rockets namely- Falcon 9 and
Falcon heavy, the booster stages of which generally return to earth for refurbishment, further
undercutting SpaceX’s competitors. Alongside, Dragon, a capsule that translocates crew and cargo to
International Space Station, anchoring their contract, is also under operation.
However, the extensively fascinating Spacecraft system, supposedly called, Starship, is afloat, as an
idea, that would be able to carry mass payloads into space. The program prospectively aims at
translocating or ferrying people to Mars for permanent habitation. Besides, the company is also
deploying a massive constellation of small satellites called Starlink, intend to provide global high
speeds internet access.
As of 2021, SpaceX as a company is valued over $46 billion. With very promising pursuits, definitive
industry leading endeavours, cost consciousness, plans of generalising space travel, might be
divisive, yet perpetually widens the scope and purpose of human existence.
-Aditya Sharma
