Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will propose a more affordable and reliable alternative to delivering payloads to orbit at the 17th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, hosted by Utah State University Aug. 11-14, 2003.
Staying with the theme of this year’s conference “Access to Space”, SpaceX will present a technical overview of its family of launch vehicles designed to revolutionize the cost and reliability of space flight.
“Satellites urgently need a more reliable and cost-effective launch vehicle than the options available today. SpaceX is confident that our rockets will achieve that end and open space for more business,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX Chairman and CEO.
The company’s first rocket, named Falcon, specifically designed to provide reliable and cost-effective access to space, 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.
“Our approach has been to work extremely hard on reducing all the cost elements of a launch vehicle company, such as propulsion, structures, avionics, launch operations and general overhead,” said Dr. Hans Koeningsmann, SpaceX Vice President of Avionics and Systems.
First Falcon launch is scheduled for January 22, 2004, from Vandenberg, carrying a U.S. Government satellite.
The technical paper on Falcon will be presented Monday, August 11, during Technical Session I: New Ways to Orbit, by Elon Musk, SpaceX Chairman and CEO, Dr. Hans Koeningsmann, Vice President of Avionics and Systems, and Gwynne Gurevich, Vice President of Business Development.
Additional materials and literature will be available at the SpaceX booth in the exhibit area. For more information or to schedule a media interview with the SpaceX team at the conference, please contact Tereza Predescu at 202-415-5415.
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.
