Ebook: SpaceX: Making Commercial Spaceflight a Reality

This first account of commercial spaceflight’s most successful venture describes the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have placed SpaceX at the forefront of the launch industry and made it the most likely candidate for transporting humans to Mars. Since its inception in 2002, SpaceX has sought to change the space launch paradigm by developing a family of launch vehicles that will ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access tenfold. Coupled with the newly emerging market for governmental, private, and commercial space transport, this new model will re-ignite humanity's efforts to explore and develop space.

Formed in 2002 by Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation, SpaceX has already developed two state-of-the-art new launch vehicles, established an impressive launch manifest, and been awarded COTS funding by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the ISS.

This book describes how simplicity, low-cost, and reliability can go hand in hand, as promoted in the philosophy of SpaceX. It explains how, by eliminating the traditional layers of internal management and external sub-contractors and keeping the vast majority of manufacturing in house, SpaceX reduces its costs while accelerating decision making and delivery, controls quality, and ensures constant liaison between the design and manufacturing teams.

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2012 - the year when the first ever privately-developed spacecraft visited the International Space Station.

This is the story of how one company is transforming commercial space flight. It describes the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have resulted in the world's first fully reusable launch vehicles and the prospect of human travel to Mars.
SpaceX - The First Ten Years:

- explores the philosophy behind the success of SpaceX;
- explains the practical management that enables SpaceX to keep it simple, reliable, and affordable;
- details the developmentof the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and the technology of the Merlin engines;
- describes the collaboration with NASA;
- introduces current SpaceX projects, including the Grasshopper reusable launch vehicle and the Stratolaunch System.

SpaceX - The First Ten Years is a portrait of one of the most spectacular spaceflight triumphs of the 21st century, one that is laying the foundation for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization.

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2012 - the year when the first ever privately-developed spacecraft visited the International Space Station.

This is the story of how one company is transforming commercial space flight. It describes the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have resulted in the world's first fully reusable launch vehicles and the prospect of human travel to Mars.
SpaceX - The First Ten Years:

- explores the philosophy behind the success of SpaceX;
- explains the practical management that enables SpaceX to keep it simple, reliable, and affordable;
- details the developmentof the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and the technology of the Merlin engines;
- describes the collaboration with NASA;
- introduces current SpaceX projects, including the Grasshopper reusable launch vehicle and the Stratolaunch System.

SpaceX - The First Ten Years is a portrait of one of the most spectacular spaceflight triumphs of the 21st century, one that is laying the foundation for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Elon Musk: The space industry’s Tony Stark....Pages 1-15
The engine of competition....Pages 17-31
The engines: The workhorses of commercial spaceffight....Pages 33-49
Rise of the Falcon....Pages 51-63
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy: Life after the Space Shuttle....Pages 65-84
The Dragon has landed: Picking up where NASA left off....Pages 85-109
The space taxi race....Pages 111-140
Red Dragon....Pages 141-149
The next great adventure: The route to commercializing low Earth orbit....Pages 151-167
Back Matter....Pages 169-206

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2012 - the year when the first ever privately-developed spacecraft visited the International Space Station.

This is the story of how one company is transforming commercial space flight. It describes the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have resulted in the world's first fully reusable launch vehicles and the prospect of human travel to Mars.
SpaceX - The First Ten Years:

- explores the philosophy behind the success of SpaceX;
- explains the practical management that enables SpaceX to keep it simple, reliable, and affordable;
- details the developmentof the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets and the technology of the Merlin engines;
- describes the collaboration with NASA;
- introduces current SpaceX projects, including the Grasshopper reusable launch vehicle and the Stratolaunch System.

SpaceX - The First Ten Years is a portrait of one of the most spectacular spaceflight triumphs of the 21st century, one that is laying the foundation for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xvi
Elon Musk: The space industry’s Tony Stark....Pages 1-15
The engine of competition....Pages 17-31
The engines: The workhorses of commercial spaceffight....Pages 33-49
Rise of the Falcon....Pages 51-63
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy: Life after the Space Shuttle....Pages 65-84
The Dragon has landed: Picking up where NASA left off....Pages 85-109
The space taxi race....Pages 111-140
Red Dragon....Pages 141-149
The next great adventure: The route to commercializing low Earth orbit....Pages 151-167
Back Matter....Pages 169-206
....