A personal message from Elon Musk

"For the first time in the four billion year history of Earth, there exists the possibility of extending life beyond Earth to other planets. It is difficult to predict how long that window will remain open. I will talk about why this goal should be considered important and why we should seek to fulfil it this century".

"Commercial space transport companies, including possibly SpaceX, are needed to make this happen, as the commercial sector is best suited to optimizing both the cost and reliability of access to space, just as the commercial air and ground transport companies did in their sectors. I believe we will need at least an order (perhaps two orders) of magnitude reduction in present day space launch costs and flight failures to achieve the above goal of becoming a multi-planetary species. This lecture will describe how SpaceX intends to make progress in that direction with the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Dragon".

SpaceX

In an era when most technology based products follow a path of ever-increasing capability and reliability while simultaneously reducing costs, launch vehicles today are little changed from those of 40 years ago. Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) aims to change this paradigm by developing a family of launch vehicles which will ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access by a factor of ten. Coupled with the newly emerging market for private and commercial space transport, this new model will re-ignite humanity's efforts to explore and develop Space.

SpaceX is based on the philosophy that simplicity, low-cost, and reliability can go hand in hand. By eliminating the traditional layers of management internally, and sub-contractors externally, costs are reduced while speeding decision making and delivery. Likewise, by keeping the vast majority of manufacturing in house, costs are again reduced keeping tighter control of quality and ensuring a tight feedback loop between the design and manufacturing teams. And by focusing on simple, proven designs with a primary focus on reliability, SpaceX reduce the costs associated with complex systems operating at the margin.

With the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy launch vehicles, SpaceX offers a full spectrum of light, medium and heavy lift launch capabilities. SpaceX can deliver spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. The Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy are the only US launch vehicles with true engine out reliability. They are also designed such that all stages are reusable, making them the world's first fully reusable launch vehicles. And our Dragon crew and cargo capsule, currently under development, will revolutionize access to space by providing efficient and reliable transport of crew and cargo to the ISS and other LEO destinations.

The Falcon launch vehicle family is designed to carry both small and large satellites to missions ranging from Earth orbit to inter-planetary missions at significantly lower cost and higher reliability than prior launch vehicle designs.

As winner of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition, SpaceX is designing and building the Falcon 9 human-rated launch vehicle and Dragon spaceship to transport cargo and then astronauts to the International Space Station.

Falcon 1 DemoFlight 2 prior to lift-off. The 20 March 2007 test flight reached an altitude of approximately 290 km.

 
Dragon Spacecraft (Capsule + Trunk) with Solar Panels deployed.

 
Elon Musk

Elon Musk is CEO and CTO of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), which he founded in 2002. SpaceX develops launch vehicles and spacecraft for missions to Earth orbit and beyond. Last year, SpaceX won the NASA competition to design, build and demonstrate operation of a commercial replacement for the Space Shuttle, which retires in 2010.

Prior to SpaceX, Elon Musk co-founded PayPal, the world’s leading Internet payment system, and served as the company’s chairman and CEO. PayPal currently has over one hundred million customers in 190 countries, processes tens of billion dollars per year and went public on NASDAQ in early 2002. Mr Musk was the largest shareholder of PayPal until the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in mid 2002.

Before PayPal, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2 Corp., a provider of Internet software to the media industry, with investments from The New York Times Company, Knight-Ridder, MDV, Softbank and Hearst. He served as chairman, CEO and CTO. In early 1999, Zip2 was sold to Compaq for over $300 million in an all cash transaction.

Mr. Musk's early experience extends across a spectrum of advanced technology industries, from high energy density ultra-capacitors at Pinnacle Research to software development at Rocket Science and Microsoft. He has a physics degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a business degree from Wharton and originally came out to California to pursue graduate studies in high energy density capacitor physics and materials science at Stanford.

In addition to his current day to day role at SpaceX, Mr Musk is also chairman and the primary investor in Tesla Motors and SolarCity, where he plays a significant role in their strategic direction and product development. Both companies are intended to help address CO₂ driven climate change.

Wikipedia: Elon Musk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk SpaceX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX