SpaceX founding , Musk's vision, facilities, organization, personnel

Jim Rauf

• 1 Introduction: topics , some basics and rocket pioneers
• 2 SpaceX founding , Musk's vision, facilities, organization, personnel
• 3 SpaceX and NASA commercial funding
• 4 Falcon rockets and engines , Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy
• 5 Dragon spacecraft , Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon
• 6 Super Heavy booster and engines and Starship spacecraft
• 7 Starship competition for Artemis Moon Human Landing System
• 8 Musk's Mars vision , plans and challenges


Company Description

• · SpaceX offers a family of launch vehicles that improves launch reliability and low cost
• · Company philosophy : simplicity, reliability and cost effectiveness are closely connected
• · SpaceX corporate structure is flat - business processes are lean, resulting in fast decision-making and product delivery
• · SpaceX design and manufacturing facilities are located near the Los Angeles International Airport
• · SpaceX vehicle design teams are co- located with production and quality assurance staff
• · SpaceX has developed and flown the Falcon 1 launch vehicle, the Falcon 9 medium-lift launch vehicle, the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle and Dragon space craft- the first commercially produced spacecraft to visit the International Space Station (ISS)
• · SpaceX operates propulsion and structural test facilities in Central Texas, launch sites in Florida and California, and a commercial orbital launch site in South Texas
• · SpaceX customer are commercial, government and international
• · NASA has awarded SpaceX contracts to transport astronauts to space as well as to launch scientific satellites
• · SpaceX's first crewed test flight with the Crew Dragon spacecraft launched in May 2020
• · NASA has certified the Falcon 9 / Crew Dragon system for human spaceflight
• · SpaceX is providing operational missions to the International Space Station
• · SpaceX is on contract with the U.S. Space Force for multiple missions on the Falcon family of launch vehicles


Founding Elon Musk

• · Elon Musk was born on June 28, 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa
• · He grew up in South Africa and attended school through high school
• · He moved to Canada at age 17 to avoid mandatory service in the South African military and obtained his Canadian citizenship (Mother was Canadian)
• · Musk became a U.S. citizen in 2002
• · He studied briefly at Pretoria University in South Africa, Queen's University in Canada, and Stanford University in the US
• · Elon Musk education includes physics and economics degrees from the University of Pennsylvania

• · He is the current CEO&Chief Product Architect of Tesla, Inc
• · He is CEO of Solar City
• · He is CEO & CTO of SpaceX
• · He is the founder of the Boring Company
• · He is primary owner of X Corp
• · He is co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI
• · He is president of the Musk Foundation


Founding

Elon Musk

• · In early 2002 Elon Musk was pursuing a grand scheme to rekindle public interest in sending humans to Mars
• · Musk's idea was to place a small greenhouse laden with seeds and nutrient gel on the Martian surface to establish life there, if only temporarily
• · He figured out a mission that would cost about $15 to $20 million which isn't a lot of money but it's about a 10th of what a low-cost NASA mission would be
• · The idea was called Mars Oasis
• · The plan was to put a small robotic land rover on the surface of Mars with seeds and dehydrated nutrient gel
• · They would hydrate upon landing and you'd have plants growing in a Martian radiation, gravity conditions
• · And you'd also be maintaining, essentially, life support systems on the surface of Mars
• · He'd already talked to contractors who would build it for a comparatively low cost
• · Estimated mission cost $15 to $20 million
• · The problem was launching it



Founding

Elon Musk

• · The lowest cost launch vehicles in US is Boeing's Delta 2 which costs about $50 million
• · Musk made three visits to Moscow to look at buying a Russian launch
• · He actually did get to a deal
• · Too many complications -
• Too high a risk
• · On the flight home, Musk recalls:

• · 'I was trying to understand why rockets were so expensive
• · The lowest cost to make anything is the spot value of the material constituents
• · It is a question of how efficient you can be about getting the atoms from raw material state to rocket shape.'
• · In early 2002 Musk met with aerospace engineers at a hotel in Los Angeles International Airport to discuss founding a space launch company, with reportedly some having scoffed at the idea
• · According to filings, SpaceX was incorporated on 14 March 2002
• · The company was named " Space Exploration Technologies Corporation' it was quickly changed to be " SpaceX'
• · In April 2002 he invited five to join the company as early employees: Michael Griffin, Jim Cantrell, John Garvey, Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson
• · Mueller and Thompson became the company's first and second employee respectively
• · Musk provided half of his $180 million from PayPal stocks to the newly founded company securing both employees with two-years' worth of salary


Founding

Early Employees

• · Musk assumed the role of Chief Engineer , after having offered the title to Griffin who did not join SpaceX
• · He is now CEO and Chief Technical Officer
• · Tom Mueller(ex-TRW) was in charge of developing rocket engines, propellant tanks and plumbing
• · Chris Thompson ( ex- McDonnell Douglas )was in charge of making the rocket's body and couplings
• · Hans Koenigsmann (exMicrocosm Inc )was in charge of making the rocket's avionics (electronic systems)
• · In August 2002, Gwynne Shotwell (exMicrocosm Inc ) was hired as the head of sales for the company
• · At first, SpaceX's employees would meet at hotels in airports, but later the company headquartered at a building in 13El Segundo, California



Gwynne Shotwell

Chris Thompson



Elon Musk Vision for SpaceX

Make spaceflight routine and affordable

Make humans a multi-planet species Colonize Mars

Define the Vision

Communicate it Relentlessly

Work Towards Small Wins



Company Locations


• · SpaceX started out in California in 2002
• · Its first Falcon 1 test launches were in the Marshall Islands
• · It is now primarily U.S. based
• · SpaceX has offices, launchpads, factories, and test facilities in:
• · California
• · Florida
• · Texas
• · Virginia
• · Washington
• · Washington DC


Facilities

• · SpaceX operates launch facilities:
• · Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40)
• · Vandenberg Space Force Base Space Launch Complex 4 E (SLC-4E)
• · Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC39A)
• · Brownsville South Texas Launch Site (Starbase)
• · SpaceX operates test rocket test facility :
• · McGregor, Texas
• · SpaceX operates rocket and spacecraft manufacturing facility :
• · Hawthorne , California
• · Headquarters
• · SpaceX operates Starlink manufacturing facility:
• · Redmond , Washington


Cape Canaveral Air Force Station

Launch Facility



Rockets are horizontally assembled in a building just south of the launchpad, rolled out to the stand, and slowly tilted vertical



Vandenberg Air Force Base Launch Facility



Kennedy Space Center

out to the stand, and slowly tilted vertical



Starbase Launch Facility

• · Starbase is a launch site, production, and development facility for Starship rockets, located at Boca Chica, Texas
• · In early 2018, SpaceX announced that the launch site would be used exclusively for launching the Starship space craft using the Super Heavy booster
• · Between 2018 and 2020, the site added significant rocket production and test capacity

• · SpaceX needed a test site for the Merlin and Kestrel engines
• · In 2002, the company rented a space at the Mojave Air and Space Port to test the turbopumps
• · One time, black sooty clouds from the turbopump enveloped the air traffic control tower
• · A bigger testing facility was needed, especially the higher thrust Merlin engine
• · SpaceX finally picked a testing site at McGregor, Texas that was previously owned by the bankrupted Beal Aerospace

Rocket Engine Test Facility



• · SpaceX adopted:
• · A ' flat ' organization structure
• · Vertical integration manufacturing model
• · Design and build major parts in house
• · Engines
• · Avionics
• · Structures
• · Heat shields
• · Proven technology
• · Emphasize manufacturing efficiency
• · Minimize costs by avoiding external suppliers
• · Assemble rockets horizontally
• · NASA 'stacks' rockets vertically
• · Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

Design and Manufacturing Facility




Design and Manufacturing Facility




Rocket Engine Test facility


• · SpaceX needed a facility to test-fire noisy rocket engines and launch prototype spacecraft
• · SpaceX took over the mothballed Beal Aerospace facility in McGregor, Texas
• · The site already had rocket-engine-test stands
• · It is remote enough to not bother too many locals
• · It is close enough to habitation to support an engineering workforce


Starlink Production and Test Facility

• · In 2015, Musk introduced a plan to surround Earth in thousands of satellites to bring high-speed broadband internet to everyone on the planet
• · The project is called Starlink
• · SpacX has since built a facility in Redmond, Washington , to build and test satellites
• · The plan is to build and launch roughly 12,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites


Organization

Leadership Team



• · The board of directors has different types of education and wide range of experience in different industries
• · Education histories include degrees in philosophy and political science, law French cuisine, computer engineering, and mechanical engineering
• · Some previous experiences:
• · Working at Google
• · Senior associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• · Associate at Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP
• · CEO at Me.dium
• · Co-founder at The Kitchen Community
• · Experience with Tesla Motors, PayPal, Netscape, and Impulse Space Propulsion

Organization




Garrett Reisman

Senlor Advlsor

Thomas Mueller Senior Advisor

Kimbal Musk Board Member

Board of Directors



• · Total employment ~ 12,000 employees 49.8% of SpaceX employees are White
• · 86.3% male employees
• · 13.7% female employees
• · 38% are aged from 30 to 40 years old
• · Most (38.9%) employees earn around $40,000 to $60,000 each year
• · Most hold the following degrees:
• · 54.7% have a Bachelor's Degree
• · 19.1% have an Associate Degree
• · 10.6% have a Master's Degree
• · 8.0% have a High School Diploma
• · 1.6% have a Doctorate Degree

Personnel

• · Most prominent employees' majors :
• · 24.9% have a major in Mechanical Engineering
• · 15% have a major in Business
• · 10.6% have a major in Aerospace Engineering
• · 8.1% have a major in Electrical Engineering
• · 5.3% have a major in Aviation
• · 3.9% have a major in Precision Metal Working


Bing Videos

Next Session

SpaceX and NASA commercial funding