How SpaceX Revolutionized Space Travel
Video from the channel Progress - Science Documentaries about Falcon 9, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 50:38. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
A documentary that reviews the main launch vehicles in service and the exploration of Mars. After explaining that every satellite depends on a rocket to place it in its orbit, it covers the Soyuz, the Delta IV Heavy, SpaceX's Falcons, the Ariane 5, the Proton, and Rocket Lab's Electron, and devotes its second half to the missions sent to the red planet.
Historical context
The Soyuz descends from the Vostok launcher with which Yuri Gagarin reached orbit on April 12, 1961, a Korolev design born as a nuclear missile. The documentary shows its horizontal assembly, transport by train, and erection at Baikonur and at Kourou. SpaceX arises from Elon Musk's idea, in 2001, of taking a greenhouse to Mars; unable to buy a Russian rocket, he decided to build his own, prioritizing simplicity and cost. In 2012 the first commercial cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station flew with the Dragon capsule, capable of returning to Earth.
Key facts
The Falcon 9, criticized for its nine Merlin engines, used that configuration to land the first stage with only one engine lit; recovering it costs about 30% of payload capacity but makes launches much cheaper. The Falcon Heavy, essentially three Falcon 9s joined together, carried a Tesla Roadster to solar orbit on its demonstration flight; the two strap-on boosters returned to Cape Canaveral and the central core failed to land on the barge. For the Delta IV Heavy, the launch of the Parker probe stands out; for the Ariane 5, its record payload to geostationary transfer orbit; for the Proton, the July 2013 failure caused by a sensor mounted upside down; and for the Electron, its Rutherford engine with electric pumps. On Mars, the story runs from Mariner 9 and the Vikings to Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity (launched in November 2011 on an Atlas V), and InSight, which landed in November 2018.