The Real Reason SpaceX Developed The Falcon 9!
Video from the channel The Space Race about Falcon 9, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 17:46. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.
What it's about
Explanatory documentary on why SpaceX developed the Falcon 9: to radically cut the cost of access to orbit through reusability, as a step toward its goal of colonizing Mars.
Historical context
The video starts from around $10,000 per kilogram to low Earth orbit in the Space Shuttle era. SpaceX, initially funded by Elon Musk, designed the Merlin engine aiming for simplicity and low cost: an open gas-generator cycle using liquid oxygen and RP-1. The Merlin 1C flew on the Falcon 1 and on the first five Falcon 9s, and the Merlin 1D powers today's Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Propulsive landing was chosen to recover the first stage. Parachutes were not enough, since the stage exceeds 8,000 km/h at separation.
Key facts
The video reviews the versions. The v1.0 was about 46 m long and had nine engines in a grid pattern. The v1.1, over 68 m, introduced the Merlin 1D and the Octaweb layout; it received landing legs on the CRS-3 mission (April 2014) and grid fins on CRS-5 (January 2015). The Full Thrust achieved the first landing of an orbital first stage on its first flight, at Cape Canaveral. The Block 5 (2018) added titanium grid fins, retractable legs and improved COPVs. The first reused first stage flew in March 2017.
In December 2023, booster B1058 completed its 19th flight; it was the one that carried Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS in May 2020. The cost cited is around $2,700 per kilogram, 73% lower than a decade earlier, and in 2023 the Falcon 9 carried out 96 successful launches.