Low costs, high hopes
SpaceX to delay launch, pleased with its place in competitive field
ORLANDO — Rocket builder Elon Musk drew a crowd of several hundred aerospace executives and engineers Wednesday to hear his plan to revitalize the U.S. launch industry.
Seen by many as the new face of the rocket industry, Internet entrepreneur Musk began his rocket endeavor in 2002 and built a rocket, the Falcon 1, that was launched successfully last year. He plans to launch the first of a larger version of that rocket, the 188-foot Falcon 9, this summer from Cape Canaveral. That’s a bit later than an earlier timetable, which had the launch set for spring.
The first Falcon 9 has been assembled at the Cape and will be raised to vertical next month.
As NASA struggles to replace the aging space shuttle, commercial spacecraft builders like Musk are seen as major players in the launch business. Some 80 percent of the multi-billion dollar satellite launch business now goes to the Russians and Ukrainians, who have under-priced American companies, Musk said.
“That’s because the U.S. launch vehicles are not cost-competitive,” Musk said Wednesday. “That’s going to change with Falcon 9. There’s actually a pretty big launch market out there.”
The leader of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, Musk was the keynote speaker at the New Horizons Forum of the annual conference sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The convention has gathered 2,370 aerospace executives and engineers at the Marriott World Center in Orlando.
If the Falcon 9 launches successfully, Musk said he will be able to bid competitively for about 50 launches that occur each year. He already has six customers, not counting NASA, willing to place payloads on his untested rocket, which will launch from Cape Canaveral.
NASA last month awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station.
With the shuttle program ending and U.S. government budgets tightening, young aerospace engineers believe the future will require low-cost innovation.
“Something disruptive needs to happen if we are to move forward,” said J Simmons, a 33-year-old graduate student at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio.
Simmons said that young aerospace engineers believe Musk, or someone like him, has a good chance to revitalize the American rocket launch industry with low-cost rockets.
As NASA faces the loss of about 3,500 jobs at Kennedy Space Center with the retirement of the space shuttle, Space Florida hopes to fill the void with commercial ventures.
Deb Spicer, vice president of communications and government affairs for Space Florida, said the state is also counting on Musk and SpaceX to create space industry jobs with Cape launches. Musk has said that SpaceX expects to hire 1,000 workers by 2011.
Space Florida, which represents the state, has given SpaceX office space, consulting assistance and financial help to build a hangar.
In addition to assisting in the development of Launch Complex 40, Space Florida has taken over Launch Complex 36, which it plans to turn into a second commercial launch pad.