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Born in 1971, Elon Musk grew up in South Africa during the turbulent era of Apartheid (a system that denied rights to native Black population). During his late teens, his humanitarian personality became apparent. He refused to join the army that was engaged in stamping out the Black Nationalist Movement. Computers and Science Fiction were his passion and his initial success actually began at the age of 12 when he sold a computer code for a video game he created to a software company.

By the time he reached age 31, he was a multi-millionaire. Some would think that his fortune came from luck. However, luck had little to do with his tenacity in approaching his dreams.  His original plan while he attended Queen’s University in Kingston, a top school in Ontario, was a career in business, but mid-semester he transferred to another college, University of Pennsylvania where he earned two bachelor degrees in Economics and Physics.  He later entered a doctoral program at Stanford University in California.

It was there that he was bitten by the Internet bug, dropped out of school and started his first company, Zip2 Corporation-an online city guide. He contracted as a content provider for both New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. Struggle overshadowed his success as he slept in his office, showered at the local YMCA, met the payroll, and looked for outside financing.

He succeeded in attracting a group of venture capitalists who invested $3.6 million in his company. Again, one would refer to that as luck. Instead, smart thinking and risk-taking influenced him to give up majority control of the company. This resulted in a $307 million buy-out from Compaq Computer Corporation in February 1999. For his 7% stock, he was paid $22 million.

He took $10 million in December 1999 and started another company called X.com, an online bank. Having a record of accomplishment landed him immediate, serious investors.

Two heavy hitters came on-board, Bill Harris (appointed president and chief executive officer) and John Story. Sequoia Capital gave the company $25 million in start-up capital. Within two months, X.com was competing with its major rival Etrade Telebank. It had acquired one hundred thousand customers. However, difficulties followed.  Computer hackers performed illegal transfers from traditional bank accounts into X.com accounts. This created consumer skepticism concerning online security. Tension and doubt threatened the company’s future.

An online transfer technology called P2P (person-to-person) owned by a company named Confinity, provided new hope to X.com. In March 2000, X.com purchased it.  Harris did not agree with the idea that P2P had a promising future and resigned in May 2000. Five months later the X.com’s focus was on becoming the leading global payment transfer provider. The company dropped the original online bank and changed the name to PayPal.

EBay, an online auction website partly contributed to PayPal’s success and later that year, bought the company for $1.5 billion. Musk netted $165 million in valuable eBay stock from that deal.    Musk moved forward to his next venture. Driven by his entrepreneurial spirit and his fascination with the possibility of life on Mars, he founded SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies) in June 2002. He was involved in an organization (Mars Society) that encouraged exploration of Mars. He envisioned creating an oasis on Mars by sending an experimental greenhouse to the Red Planet. His desire was to colonize Mars as a backup planet in case of manmade or a natural disaster on Earth.

Financially, the entire mission would have had a price tag in the neighborhood of $70 million. Elon quickly concluded that the standard delivery method by conventional rockets was too expensive.

With no intention of giving up his vision, he decided to build his own rocket. It was easy for him to attract America’s Aerospace industry professionals.  He took technical specialists and experienced engineers away from Boeing and TRW.  However, this time venture capitalists kept their distance and when left with no choice, Elon put up his own money.  The rocket the company developed would be the first reusable rocket in the private sector.  His plan was to send military and commercial satellites into space at the cost of $6.7 million for a small payload and $38 to $78 million for a heavyweight launch. By comparison, the Air Force's total cost for a Boeing or Lockheed Martin launch of a big payload comes to about $230 million, up from an inflation-adjusted $95 million in 1998.

SpaceX had three unsuccessful attempts to launch their first rocket into an orbit. The company was also involved in a fight with the courts and the Federal Trade Commission to break the monopoly of Boeing-Lockheed joint venture that would allow them and other entrepreneurs to access a portion of the military market.

In spite of complications, SpaceX Corporation stood firm.  Musk initially acquired $200 million in advance launch contracts. They supplied a commercial solution to NASA’s problem of its retiring space shuttle fleet. In return, SpaceX was awarded lucrative contracts to provided cargo delivery to the ISS up until 2016.

The company’s base is in Hawthorne, California. In Central Texas, it has propulsion and structural test facilities and its launch complexes are in Vandenberg and Kwajalein Island.

Its key executives are:

• Mr. Elon R. Musk Founder of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation and serves as its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer.

• Gwynne Shotwell, President and manager of strategic relationships and develops the customer base.

• James G. Maser, Jim, President and Chief Operating Officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

• Hans Koenigsmann, Chief Engineer of Avionics Guidance and Control and Vice President of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation.

• Branden Spikes, Chief Security Architect of Everdream Corporation, and is responsible for both Information Security and Information Technology.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the U.S. Defense Department are the company's main clients. The first two launch vehicles of the company are the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.

“Falcon 1 is a two-stage, liquid oxygen, and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle. It is designed in-house from the ground up by SpaceX for cost efficient and reliable transport of satellites to low Earth orbit.” (Between 160 - 2,000 km or 100 - 1,240 miles above the Earth's surface)

Space X designed and manufactured the Falcon 1 as a partially reusable launch system.  It is a two-stage rocket (two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity). A single Merlin engine powers the first stage. (Merlin uses RP-1 and liquid oxygen as propellants in a gas-generator power cycle and designed for sea recovery and reuse). A single Kestrel engine powers the second stage. (The Kestrel engine is an RP-1/liquid oxygen pressure-fed rocket engine developed for upper stage use on the Falcon 1 rocket) Both engines use Lox/RP-1 (a highly refined form of kerosene similar to jet fuel.)

The first stage tank of Falcon 1 is composed of friction-stir-welded metal aluminum alloy. (Aluminum is known for its ability to resist corrosion.) It has flight pressure stabilization design that is a blend between a fully pressure stabilized design, i.e. Atlas II rocket, and a heavier isogrid design, i.e. Delta II rocket. It has the highest propellant mass fraction of any current first stage (propellant mass fraction is a measure of a vehicle's performance, determined as the portion of the vehicle's mass which does not reach the destination. In a spacecraft, this is an orbit, while for aircrafts it is their landing location). Irvin Parachute Corporation built the parachute system and it uses a high-speed drogue chute (a parachute designed to be deployed from a rapidly moving object).  It also uses a main chute. 

Stage two tanks are built with an aluminum-lithium alloy (lithium is a soft alkali metal). Propellant is pumped to the engine from the helium pressurization system. It supplies pressurized gas for the altitude controlled thrusters.

It took Falcon 1 four attempts to achieve orbit. Launched on September 28 2008, the fourth attempt was the “first successful orbital launch vehicle developed through private funding”.

Falcon 9 is also a two stage; (designed to be reusable) liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene powered launch vehicle.  It uses the same engines, structural architecture, as well as avionics and launch system. Nine SpaceX Merlin engines power the first stage. The thrust per engine is 125,000 lbs-f sea level equaling a total thrust on liftoff of a little over 1.1 Million lbs-f.  Its domes and walls are composed of aluminum-lithium alloy. The separation system is a larger version of the pneumatic pushers used on Falcon 1. For the highest strength and most reliable welding technique an all friction stir welded tank is used.  The design, an EELV (Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle is a United States government class vehicle), is intended to compete with the Delta IV and Atlas V Rockets commercially. The Second stage tank is a shorter version of the first stage tank with majority of the same tooling, material, and manufacturing techniques.

Flight for the Falcon 9 is pending for 2009.  It was integrated at Cape Canaveral on December 30, 2008.

The SpaceX Dragon will be launched atop of Falcon 9.  A full sized prototype has been constructed. It is a (proposed) conventional blunt-cone ballistic capsule spacecraft with passenger seating of seven people or a combination of personnel and cargo to and from low Earth orbit. The plan is to enter it into service by end of 2009. Inside its hinged cap is a standard ISS Common Berthing mechanism (used to connect all non-Russian pressurized modules of the International Space Station).

The goal of SpaceX is to offer open and fixed pricing for all customers. The fees range from $57.75M to $104.5M depending on the payload, and for contractually committed multi-launch purchases, there is a modest discount.

Nevertheless, are they the cheapest prices? In comparison to Boeing and Lockheed Martin, the SpaceX’s prices are low; however, China Great Wall Industry Group claims to be a lot cheaper. They state that Africa and Latin American customers are expecting to build, launch, and operate satellites up to 15 years at lower costs.  Additionally India and China are aiming for a larger share of the multi-billion dollar global space market.

Elon Musk is a visionary, dreamer, and true entrepreneur. His dreams lean towards Science Fiction, but his and Space X’s achievements are pure Science. Their passion to “reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access” will motivate achievements that far surpass the impossibilities of Science Fiction.

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