SpaceX Performs First Rocket Engine Firing
Successful Internet Entrepreneur Now Targets Space Industry
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Mar. 19, 2003 - Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
("SpaceX", http://www.spacex.com), the third company founded by successful Internet
entrepreneur Elon Musk, today announced the successful firing of the company's Falcon
rocket main engine. Musk, 31, who previously co-founded popular online payment service
PayPal™ and enterprise software company Zip2 Corp., founded SpaceX in June 2002
with the goal of developing launch vehicles that will set new benchmarks for reliable
and low cost access to space.
"Satellites and spacecraft urgently need a
more reliable and cost effective launch vehicle than the options available today.
SpaceX is confident that our Falcon rocket will achieve that end in the near future,"
said Elon Musk, SpaceX Chairman and CEO. "In only nine months we've designed, built
and initiated testing of our rocket's main engine, which is a testament to the capability
and determination of the SpaceX team to deliver on promised goals in record time."
"This is the most successful engine test program I have managed in more than 15 years of rocket engine development," said Tom Mueller, SpaceX Vice President of Propulsion and former head of liquid rocket propulsion development at TRW Space and Electronics™. "It is all the more exceptional given that the engine is a clean sheet design with several new technology innovations."
In initial tests, the liquid oxygen and kerosene engine, named Merlin, achieved
full expected thrust of 60,000 lbs and a combustion efficiency of 93%. With further
testing, the company expects to exceed a 96% efficiency level. This compares well
with the much larger Saturn V Moon rocket's F-1 engine, which used the same propellant
combination, but achieved only 93.5% efficiency.
About the Falcon Rocket
The company's initial rocket, named Falcon, is being offered for $6 million per
flight to orbit - less than one-third the cost of currently available options. Although
the Falcon design draws upon the ideas of many prior launch vehicle programs, SpaceX
is developing the entire vehicle from the ground up, including both engines, the
turbo-pump, the cryogenic tank structure and the guidance system. Falcon is a two
stage, liquid oxygen and kerosene powered rocket capable of placing half a ton into
low Earth orbit in the basic configuration and one and a half tons with strap-on
liquid boosters.
Falcon is expected to be ready for launch by late 2003, with the actual liftoff date subject to Air Force, NASA and FAA approval. Following this vehicle, SpaceX will develop a large three-stage rocket using the first and second stages of the Falcon as its second and third stages. That vehicle will compete in the heavy-lift payload class currently occupied by Arianespace, Boeing, Lockheed, China Aerospace and Russia's Krunichev.
About SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies ("SpaceX") is developing a family
of launch vehicles intended to substantially reduce the cost of reliable access
to space. Located in El Segundo, California, the company was founded by CEO Elon
Musk in June 2002. SpaceX is the third company founded by Mr. Musk. Previously he
co-founded PayPal, Inc., the world's leading electronic payment system, which sold
to online auction giant eBay™ for $1.5 billion in 2002. In 1995 Mr. Musk co-founded
Zip2 Corporation, which sold to Compaq Computer Corporation for more than $300 million.
More information about SpaceX can be found at http://www.SpaceX.com.