In this blog, we’ll talk about the exciting work SpaceX is doing, like creating Rocket Design of SpaceX, reusable rockets, sending missions to the International Space Station, and building a Starship for future trips to Mars.

Rocket Design of SpaceX: An Introduction

In 2002, Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, announced to the world his plan to send some green plants to Mars. After trying to buy rockets from Russia but coming back empty-handed, Musk calculated the price of the raw materials used to produce rockets and found that it was only 3% of the selling price of a rocket at the time. This means that even if he cut the price of a rocket launch to one-tenth of the market price, he would still have a 70% gross profit margin, so Musk decided to build his rocket, and this decision led to the birth of Falcon 1 and SpaceX.

Everyone knows the story that followed. SpaceX has single-handedly driven the rapid development of the entire commercial aerospace industry, and has made many jaw-dropping breakthroughs to reduce costs, such as recycling and reusing rockets! For most of us, it’s hard to tell the difference between Falcon, Falcon Heavy, and Starship. Aren’t they all rockets? Today, we’ll sort it out for you.

International Astronautical Congress

In September 2017, at the 68th International Astronautical Congress, SpaceX unveiled its latest rocket design of SpaceX. Musk said at the conference: “We are looking for an official name, but for now it will be called BFR.”It will use a methane staged combustion rocket engine technology and will initially be used for Earth orbit and columnar flight environments, and may also be used for missions to Mars in the future.

The design revised by SpaceX in 2017 is a 9-meter (30-foot) diameter carbon composite technology rocket with a small delta wing at the rear end, one of which is a split flap for pitch and roll control. Its delta wing and split flaps expand the flight envelope to enable the spacecraft to land in a variety of atmospheric densities (no, thin, or heavy atmosphere) and to accommodate a variety of payloads (small, heavy, or no payload) placed in the spacecraft’s nose cone.

The rocket’s second stage is available in three versions: BFS cargo, BFS tanker, and BFS crew. The cargo version will be used to launch satellites into low Earth orbit – providing “a much greater volume of potato-scattering action than before” and to transport cargo to the Moon and Mars. After refueling in a highly elliptical Earth orbit, the spacecraft will be designed to be able to land on the Moon and return to Earth in one go without refueling.

In addition, the BFR system has been shown to be capable of carrying passengers or cargo in a rapid ground-to-ground fashion, delivering its payload to anywhere on Earth in 90 minutes.

Rocket Design of SpaceX Main Engine Test

As of September 2017, the Raptor rocket engine has undergone 42 main engine tests, totaling 1,200 seconds of test firing time. Test engines were operated at 20 MPa (200 bar; 2,900 psi), while the flight engine chamber pressure target is 25 MPa (250 bar; 3,600 psi), and SpaceX expects to achieve a chamber pressure of 30 MPa (300 bar; 4,400 psi) in subsequent iterations.

In November 2017, SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell said that about half of BFR development work was focused on the Raptor rocket engine.

In 2017, SpaceX’s goal was to send the first two cargo payloads to Mars in 2022. The goal of these two cargo payloads was to “confirm water resources and identify hazards” while installing “power, mining, and life support infrastructure” for future flights. This would be followed by four ships in 2024, including two BFR spacecraft with crew and two cargo ships. The two cargo ships would bring additional equipment and supplies, to establish a propellant production plant on Mars.

SpaceX Had Begun Construction Rocket Design of SpaceX

By early 2018, SpaceX had begun construction of a new permanent production facility at the Port of Los Angeles to manufacture its 30-foot (9-meter) diameter carbon fiber composite rocket bodies. As of March 2018, manufacturing of the first ship was underway at a temporary facility at the port, and the first suborbital test flight was scheduled for no earlier than 2019. The company continues to publicly state that its initial aspirational goal is to have a BFR cargo mission to Mars in 2022, followed by the first crewed mission to Mars in 2024, in line with the timeline mentioned in late 2017.

As early as 2015, SpaceX had been scouting for locations for manufacturing facilities to build large rockets and had been investigating sites in California, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. As of September 2017, SpaceX had begun manufacturing components for the launch vehicle. “We have ordered tooling for the tanks, the facility is under construction, and we will begin building the prototype in the second quarter of 2018.”

SpaceX Announcement

In March 2018, SpaceX announced that it would produce its next-generation 9-meter diameter (30 ft) launch vehicle and spacecraft at a new factory to be built on the Port of Los Angeles’ Oceanfront Boulevard in 2018–2019. SpaceX leased 18 acres of land for 10 years, allowing for multiple upgrades, and will use the site to manufacture rocket bodies, inspect rocket bodies after landing at sea, and refurbish boosters and spacecraft. The new facility received final regulatory approval from the Harbor Commission in April 2018 and the Los Angeles City Council in May 2018. By then, approximately 40 SpaceX employees were designing and building the BFR.

The project is expected to have 700 technical jobs over time. The temporary facility in Los Angeles is a 203,500-square-foot (18,910 m2) building that is approximately 105 feet (32 m) tall. The fully assembled launch vehicle is expected to be transported by barge through the Panama Canal to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for launch.

The U.S. military first publicly discussed the Rocket design of SpaceX

U.S. military first publicly discussed In August 2018, the U.S. military first publicly discussed its interest in using the BFR. The head of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command is particularly interested in the BFR’s ability to deliver 150 tons of payload to any location in the world in less than 30 minutes. They expect such large-scale transport capabilities to be “possible within the next five to ten years.”

New design approach of Rocket design of SpaceX

In December 2018, nine months after the construction of the first carbon composite test component began, Musk announced that a “counterintuitive new design approach” would be taken: the material SpaceX would primarily use for the rocket structure and propellant tanks would be “quite heavy… but very strong” metal. This was subsequently revealed to be stainless steel.

Following a personal visit to SpaceX’s South Texas launch site in Boca Chica, Musk revealed that the first Starship test article, the “Starbucket”, had been under construction for several weeks. As previously thought, the Starbucks would be made of 300 series stainless steel rather than carbon composite. According to Musk, the reason for using stainless steel was that “stainless steel is significantly cheaper and faster to build”. It’s not the lightest, but it’s the lightest. If you look at the properties of high-quality stainless steel, it’s not obvious that at low temperatures, stainless steel is 50% stronger.” The high melting point of 300 series stainless steel still means that the leeward side of Starship will not need insulating terracotta during re-entry, while the hotter windward side will be able to use less insulating terracotta than other materials to insulate the heat.