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SpaceX: making things hot in Texas

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  • SpaceX: making things hot in Texas

    Averaging one rocket engine test fire a day? 1,800 since Jan. 2003?

    Damn busy those rocketeers

    Pics below;

    Top: a Falcon 9 1st stage - 86 x 12 feet (25.8 x 3.6 meters) minus the engine bay. A Falcon 9 Heavy will be 3 of these side-by-side with the 2nd stage & payload mounted to the core (center) stage.

    Bottom: Merlin 1 engine test fire; 9 of these on a Falcon 9 and 27 on a Falcon 9 Heavy

    I so want to go to the Cape to see a Falcon 9 Heavy launched

    IF all goes well there will be a Merlin 3, which will be as powerful as the F1 engine used on the Saturn V but of a more modern design.

    SpaceX at Google Maps (Pad 40 @ Kennedy Space Center, test facilities, new 500,000 sq ft HQ etc.)

    Waco Tribune....

    Rocket-maker SpaceX makes some noise in McGregor

    SpaceX knows how to shake things up in McGregor.

    Founded by billionaire Elon Musk, SpaceX has been making a racket in McGregor’s industrial park since January 2003. It leases nearly 300 acres there and test-fires engines for its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets.

    “It does kind of rock things a little bit,” said Donald Citrano, owner of the Coffee Shop Cafe on U.S. Highway 84 in McGregor. “You hear something and say, ‘What’s that?’ then realize it’s the rocket plant.”

    Company spokeswoman Lauren Dreyer said SpaceX, headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., has averaged one test-firing a day since it began operating in McGregor, “for a total of 1,800 hot-fire tests.”


    The company knows it has piqued the interest of its neighbors, so it hosted a community picnic on Saturday that got hundreds of reservations.

    Musk, 36, is an energetic entrepreneur originally from South Africa. He reportedly has spent $100 million of his own money to launch SpaceX, which is short for Space Exploration Technologies.

    He has the cash to spend, having started the PayPal Web site and flipping it to eBay for $1.5 billion.

    Rocket makers like SpaceX make money by blasting payloads into space for others. These include satellites, spacecraft or even personal items like cremated remains.

    For $7 million, it will launch a payload with its Falcon 1, which is 70 feet long and 5 1/2 feet in diameter. It charges $35 million to use Falcon 9, which is 180 feet long and 12 feet in diameter, Dreyer said. Both burn kerosene and liquid oxygen.

    Falcons are not one-shot wonders.

    The first stage and engine of the two-stage Falcon 1 rocket are designed to be retrieved and reused, Dreyer said, “while the entire Falcon 9 vehicle is designed that way.”

    SpaceX has scheduled 12 launches between now and the end of 2010, including three special ones for NASA valued at $278 million. In all, the launches could fetch the company $500 million. None of the launches will be at McGregor.
    >
    Today, SpaceX is seen as a big shot at doing business there.

    “They are a great tenant with a lot of high-paid talent,” said Leo Connor, executive director of the McGregor Economic Development Corp. He said SpaceX leases 256 acres, five buildings and a 235-foot-tall stand used for test-firing rocket engines.

    An underground bunker serves as office space, said Connor, adding: “They just brought in two double-wide modular units for additional offices. We ran a water line to them last week.”

    About 40 people work full-time at SpaceX locally, which is 10 percent of the California company’s total employment.

    “Sometimes that number swells to at least double when we bring in technicians and engineers from California,” Dreyer said. “They stay in hotels and eat in local restaurants.”

    The company needs more engineers in McGregor and recently placed a billboard on Interstate 35 soliciting applications.
    >



    Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 17 October 2007, 20:59.
    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps
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