Space X, Falcon & Elon Musk

When Elon Musk isn’t busy making millions on the internet (as he did with PayPal) or developing electric sports cars (as he is doing with Tesla Motors), he’s working on making spaceflight cheaper.

Cheaper, dependable spaceflight seems to be the mission of SpaceX, Mr. Musk’s venture that is developing the Falcon launch vehicle.

But spaceflight is hard. The first three flights of Falcon I failed to reach orbit. In this case, however, fourth’s the charm. On September 28th, the Falcon I reached orbit. It was the first ever privately-funded liquid fuel payload carrying rocket to reach orbit.

The Falcon I is a 2-stage launch vehicle. It is about 70 feet tall, 5.5 feet wide and weighs 85,000 pounds. But it is the “baby-brother” of the planned Falcon 9. The larger vehicle will be 178 feet tall, 12 feet wide, and weigh 716,000 pounds. More importantly, it will greatly reduce the cost to put satellites into orbit.

Currently, the Falcon 9 is scheduled to put a prototype private inflatable space station into orbit in 2011. And SpaceX has a contract with NASA to send cargo to the International Space Station, using the Falcon 9.

Possibly most interesting of all, the Falcon 9 is a man-rated vehicle! Will it ever carry people into space? I guess we’ll have to watch and wait.