SpaceX's new ultra-reusable rocket could shape the future of humanity
Main image: SpaceX is working on the most powerful rocket ever, the Big Falcon Rocket, for trips to Mars. Credit: SpaceX
When Elon Musk's SpaceX first launched its Falcon 9 rocket back in 2010 it was thought of as a novelty venture by a tech entrepreneur that would be little more than a tech demonstration. No one thought it would become the de facto rocket for getting satellites, and even people, into orbit.
Exactly 54 launches later, SpaceX has become famous the world over for its reusable rockets, with their discarded boosters landing dramatically back on their launch pad, or on drone-ships offshore. So far about 20 first-stage boosters, complete with engines and fuel tanks, have been recovered.
SpaceX is aiming to both dominate the commercial rocket launch industry, and make space flight more efficient and affordable to further Musk's interplanetary ambitions. However, one obstacle to these ambitions is that a standard Falcon 9 rocket's boosters can still only be reused twice.
Cue the new SpaceX Block 5 boosters, which can be reused no less than 10 times – and possibly as much as 100 times. They have the potential to change everything.
What is a Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket?
The new Falcon 9 Block 5 is likely the final version of a product that's gradually been improved and developed with the same Silicon Valley mindset that drives advances in consumer electronics. SpaceX strives to constantly improve its rockets, making them more reusable and more powerful, and the Block 5 features a whole host of improvements.
Technically known as a 'two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle', this fifth and final version of the Falcon 9 enables each first-stage booster to be used 10 times, and just as importantly they can be cleaned up and ready to go again within weeks rather than months – in the rocket business, that's revolutionary. However, Musk has said publicly that he thinks that a Block 5 first stage could be able to launch 100 times.
That kind of reusability could, in the long term, make space flight much cheaper. However, perhaps the most important upgrade the Block 5 brings is a new turbopump, which was blamed for a catastrophic failure of a Falcon 9 in 2016.
Why is Falcon 9 Block 5 so important?
In terms of performance and reliability the Falcon 9 Block 5 – a decade in the making – is all about impressing NASA. The new, final Falcon 9 with Block 5 upgrades will likely be used to launch humans into space from US Soil, something that hasn't happened since NASA's Space Shuttle launched for the final time in July 2011.
In theory that could happen in early 2019. "Falcon 9, along with the Dragon spacecraft, was designed from the outset to deliver humans into space, and under an agreement with NASA, SpaceX is actively working toward this goal," says the SpaceX website.
As well as manned spaceflight missions, the Block 5 improvements will also allow SpaceX to bid for more contracts from the Pentagon, such as the US$290 million deal it just struck to launch three next-gen Air-Force Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, dubbed GPS-III. Until now, United Launch Alliance (ULA) – SpaceX's main US rival in the commercial rocket-launching business – has had the monopoly on such contracts.
Has the Falcon 9 Block 5 flown yet?
It was thought that SpaceX had used its new rocket for the first time on May 11 2018, when SpaceX delivered Bangladeshi telecoms satellite Bangabandhu-1 into orbit from Kennedy Space Center, then landed the booster on SpaceX's drone-ship in the Atlantic Ocean; however it seems that wasn't quite the finished article.
“Apparently SpaceX hasn't flown its final Block 5 rocket – it decided after that launch that it's going to add a final component that the Falcon 9 needs to meet the very stringent requirements for NASA for what's needed to safely fly NASA astronauts,” says Laura Forczyk at Astralytical, a space research, analysis and consulting firm in the US.
NASA wants SpaceX to install that turbopump, and see the rocket flown seven times without a failure. “So technically that first flight of the Block 5 rocket doesn't count because it wasn't the very final configuration,” says Forczyk. “But it's still a very impressive upgrade.”
Will a Falcon 9 Block 5 takes astronauts to space?
Probably, but it's still not clear when. SpaceX is scheduled to send a crewed test flight into orbit in December 2018 in a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 Block 5. Its rival for the NASA contract is Boeing, which will perform a similar test flight in January 2019 using its CST-100 Starliner space capsule and an Atlas V rocket from ULA. However, both companies – and NASA – appear to be dragging their feet.
“SpaceX and Boeing are neck and neck in the delays they announce,” says Forczyk. “It should have happened already.” An independent assessment recently predicted that crewed spaceflights would take place towards the end of 2019. “My best guess is 2020,” says Forczyk. SpaceX has also delayed plans to send space tourists around the moon.
Why the delays? SpaceX has been busy doing other things.
What about Falcon Heavy and the Big Falcon Rocket?
For all their awesomeness, Falcon 9 rockets generally don't leave low-Earth orbit, except when they're strapped together to make a Falcon Heavy rocket. The most powerful operational rocket in the world, SpaceX's flagship Falcon Heavy was successfully tested in February 2018. However, what Musk really wants his engineers to concentrate on is developing the massive – and entirely reusable – Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) for testing in 2020.
“The Falcon Heavy is an intermediary rocket – SpaceX is not intending to put humans on that one,” says Forczyk. Not so the BFR, which is nothing less than an interplanetary spaceship, with a planned liftoff thrust about twice that of the Saturn V rockets that took Apollo astronauts to the Moon. “The BFR is what they're planning to use to go to the moon and to Mars, which has been the SpaceX plan from the start,” says Forczyk.
The Falcon 9's new and improved reusability should mean bigger profits for SpaceX, and therefore more cash that can be spent on developing the BFR.
When is the next SpaceX launch?
That would be June 29 2018, when a Falcon 9 sends a Dragon capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. Called CRS15 because it's the fifteenth such mission in SpaceX's contract with NASA as part of its Commercial Resupply Services contract, the capsule will contain supplies and science experiments. SpaceX has been sending Dragon capsules to the ISS since 2012.
However, CRS-15 will use an 'old' Block 4 booster, which SpaceX won't be landing and reusing. It's the third launch in a row that's using – and losing – Falcon 9 Block 4 rockets.
It may have invented the concept of reusable rockets, but when you've got a new toy to house, you need to clear some, er, space. If Falcon 9 was the prototype, the Block 5 improvements make it the real thing: a very reusable rocket that will eventually make spaceflight cheaper and more frequent. Almost everything is now in place for cheaper, more frequent spaceflight.
The missing piece in the puzzle? That would be a fierce competitor to SpaceX that's willing to slash prices and grow the market for satellites and space tourism, which would ultimately trigger a price-drop in rocket retail. Can you think of anyone who might be qualified? Just a couple of miles from Kennedy Space Center and the SpaceX launch facility, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin has just moved in to a massive new reusable rocket manufacturing plant.
The reusable rocket price war is coming.
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SpaceX ina mpango wa kuunda roketi yenye nguvu zaidi duniani, Big Falcon, ambayo itasafiri hadi sayari ya Mars. Kampuni ya SpaceX ya Elon Musk ilizindua roketi ya Falcon 9 mnamo mwaka 2010 na kuifanya kuwa mradi mpya wa kiuchumi. Hakuna mtu aliyefikiri kwamba ingekuwa roketi ya kweli ya kupeleka satelaiti, na hata watu, kwenye mzunguko. Baada ya majaribio 54 ya uzinduzi, SpaceX imekuwa maarufu duniani kote kwa roketi zake zinazoweza kutumiwa tena, na booster zao zilizotupwa zinarudi kwa kasi kwenye uwanja wao wa uzinduzi au kwenye meli za drone. Hadi sasa, karibu injini 20 za hatua ya kwanza, pamoja na injini na matangi ya mafuta, zimepatikana. SpaceX inakusudia kutawala sekta ya uzinduzi wa roketi za kibiashara, na kufanya safari za angani kuwa na ufanisi zaidi na nafuu zaidi ili kuendeleza matarajio ya Musk ya anga za kati. Hata hivyo, tatizo la kwanza ni kwamba vifaa vya kutengeneza roketi ya Falcon 9 vinaweza kutumiwa mara mbili tu. SpaceX imeweka vifaa vya kuongeza nguvu vya Block 5 ambavyo vinaweza kutumiwa tena mara 10 au zaidi, na labda mara 100. Wana uwezo wa kubadilisha kila kitu. Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket Falcon 9 Block 5 ni toleo la mwisho la bidhaa ambayo imeboreshwa hatua kwa hatua na maendeleo na akili sawa Silicon Valley kwamba inaendesha maendeleo katika umeme wa watumiaji. SpaceX inaendelea kuboresha roketi zake, na kuwafanya kuwa na uwezo zaidi wa kutumiwa tena na nguvu zaidi, na Block 5 ina idadi kubwa ya maboresho. "Kama ""two-stage-to-orbit medium-lift launch vehicle,"" toleo hili la tano na la mwisho la Falcon 9 linawezesha kila booster ya hatua ya kwanza kutumika mara kumi, na muhimu zaidi, zinaweza kusafishwa na kuwa tayari kwenda tena ndani ya wiki badala ya miezi, ""katika biashara ya roketi." Musk amesema kuwa hatua ya kwanza ya Block 5 inaweza kufunguliwa mara 100. Aina hiyo ya uwezo wa kutumia tena inaweza, kwa muda mrefu, kufanya safari za angani ziwe za bei nafuu zaidi. Hata hivyo, labda kuboresha muhimu zaidi Block 5 huleta ni turbopump mpya, ambayo ilikuwa blamed kwa ajili ya kushindwa mbaya ya Falcon 9 katika 2016. Kwa nini Falcon 9 Block 5 ni muhimu sana? Kwa mujibu wa utafiti wa NASA, Falcon 9 Block 5 ni ndege ya kwanza ya aina ya ndege ya aina ya Falcon 9 ambayo imepangwa kutengenezwa kwa miaka kumi. Falcon 9 mpya na Block 5 itatumiwa kwa ajili ya kupeleka watu angani kutoka Marekani, jambo ambalo halijawahi kutokea tangu NASA ilipopeleka ndege ya Space Shuttle kwa mara ya mwisho Julai 2011. Kwa nadharia, hii inaweza kutokea mapema 2019. "Falcon 9 na Dragon zilikuwa zimekusudiwa kupeleka watu angani, na kwa makubaliano na NASA, SpaceX inafanya kazi kwa bidii kufikia lengo hilo,"" alisema." "Kama vile misheni za anga za anga zilizo na watu, maboresho ya ""Block 5"" pia yataruhusu SpaceX kutoa zabuni kwa mikataba zaidi kutoka kwa Pentagon, kama vile mpango wa dola milioni 290 ambao imefikia tu kuzindua satelaiti tatu za kizazi cha pili za mfumo wa nafasi ya anga (GPS) - GPS-3." Hadi sasa, United Launch Alliance (ULA), mshindani mkuu wa SpaceX katika biashara ya uzinduzi wa roketi, amekuwa na udhibiti wa mikataba kama hiyo. Falcon 9 Block 5 imeanza safari yake ya kwanza SpaceX ilitumia roketi hiyo kwa mara ya kwanza mnamo Mei 11, 2018, wakati SpaceX ilipopeleka satelaiti ya mawasiliano ya Bangladeshi Bangabandhu-1 kwenye mzunguko kutoka Kituo cha Anga cha Kennedy, kisha ikashuka kwenye meli ya SpaceX ya ndege isiyo na rubani katika Bahari ya Atlantiki. "Kwa hivyo, SpaceX haijawahi kuruka roketi yake ya mwisho ya Block 5, lakini imeamua baada ya uzinduzi huo kwamba itaongeza sehemu ya mwisho ambayo Falcon 9 inahitaji kukidhi mahitaji makali sana kwa NASA kwa kile kinachohitajika kwa usalama kuruka wanaanga wa NASA, ""anasema Laura Forchuk katika Astralysis, kampuni ya utafiti wa anga, uchambuzi na ushauri nchini Marekani." NASA inataka SpaceX kuanzisha turbopump hiyo, na kuona roketi kuruka mara saba bila kushindwa. "Kwa hivyo kiufundi ndege hiyo ya kwanza ya roketi ya Block 5 haihesabiwi kwa sababu haikuwa muundo wa mwisho kabisa", anasema Forczyk. "Hii ni moja ya ""kitu"" cha kwanza katika historia ya anga, na ni Falcon 9 Block 5 ambayo inaongoza kwa watu wengi duniani." Yaelekea, lakini bado haijulikani ni lini. SpaceX imepanga kutuma ndege ya majaribio ya watu katika mzunguko mnamo Desemba 2018 katika capsule ya Dragon juu ya Falcon 9 Block 5. Kampuni ya Boeing, ambayo ni mshindani wa NASA, itafanya majaribio kama hayo mwezi Januari 2019 kwa kutumia chombo cha CST-100 Starliner na roketi ya Atlas V. Hata hivyo, kampuni zote mbili <unk> na NASA <unk> zinaonekana kuwa kusukuma miguu yao. "SpaceX na Boeing ni shingo na shingo katika ucheleweshaji wao kutangaza", anasema Forczyk. "Ilipaswa kuwa imefanyika tayari. " Tathmini huru hivi karibuni ilitabiri kwamba safari za angani za abiria zingefanyika kuelekea mwisho wa 2019. "Hakika ni mwaka 2020,"" alisema Forzain." SpaceX pia imechelewesha mipango ya kutuma watalii wa angani kuzunguka mwezi. Kwa nini kuna kucheleweshwa? SpaceX imekuwa ikifanya kazi nyingine. Vipi kuhusu Falcon Heavy na Roketi Kubwa ya Falcon? Kwa mujibu wa utafiti huo, roketi za Falcon 9 haziondoki kwenye mzunguko wa chini wa dunia isipokuwa zinapofungwa pamoja na kutengeneza roketi ya Falcon Heavy. Roketi ya SpaceX Falcon Heavy ilifanyiwa majaribio ya majaribio mnamo Februari 2018. Musk anataka wahandisi wake waangalie maendeleo ya roketi kubwa ya Big Falcon (BFR) ambayo itatumiwa katika majaribio ya 2020. "Falcon Heavy ni roketi ya kati" SpaceX haina nia ya kuweka wanadamu juu ya moja hiyo, "anasema Forczyk. BFR ni ndege ya anga ya kati ya sayari, ambayo ina uwezo wa kuruka mara mbili zaidi ya roketi za Saturn V zilizopeleka wanamaji kwenye mwezi. "BFR ni kile wanachopanga kutumia kwenda mwezi na Mars, ambayo imekuwa mpango wa SpaceX tangu mwanzo", anasema Forczyk. Falcon 9 ina uwezo wa kupanua uwezo wa SpaceX na kuongeza faida kwa kampuni hiyo, na hivyo kuongeza matumizi ya fedha za SpaceX. Utoaji wa SpaceX ujao ni lini? Mnamo Juni 29, 2018, Falcon 9 ilituma chombo cha Dragon kwenye Kituo cha Angani cha Kimataifa (ISS) kutoka Kituo cha Uzinduzi cha 40 katika Kituo cha Jeshi la Anga la Cape Canaveral, Florida. CRS-15 ni ya kumi na tano ya SpaceX na NASA kwa ajili ya huduma ya kibiashara ya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa vya vifaa. SpaceX imekuwa ikituma Dragon capsules kwenye ISS tangu mwaka 2012. CRS-15 itatumia booster ya zamani ya Block 4 ambayo SpaceX haitaweza kuitumia tena. Ni mara ya tatu kwa mfululizo kwa sasa kwa ndege hiyo kutolewa kwa roketi ya Falcon 9 Block 4. "Hii inaweza kuwa na wazo la roketi reusable, lakini wakati una toy mpya ya nyumba, unahitaji kuondoa baadhi ya nafasi. """ Falcon 9 ni mfano wa kwanza wa roketi ya kwanza ya dunia, lakini Block 5 ni moja ya bora zaidi ya roketi ya dunia, na kwa hivyo inaweza kutumika kwa muda mrefu zaidi. Karibu kila kitu sasa kiko mahali pake kwa ajili ya safari za angani za bei nafuu na za mara kwa mara. Kipande kinachokosekana katika fumbo hilo? "Hiyo itakuwa mshindani mkali wa SpaceX ambaye yuko tayari kupunguza bei na kukuza soko la satelaiti na utalii wa anga, ambayo mwishowe itasababisha kushuka kwa bei katika rejareja la roketi. """ Je, unaweza kumfikiria mtu yeyote ambaye anaweza kuwa na sifa hizo? Kilomita chache tu kutoka Kituo cha Anga cha Kennedy na kituo cha uzinduzi wa SpaceX, Blue Origin ya Jeff Bezos imehamia kiwanda kipya cha kutengeneza roketi. Vita vya bei ya roketi zinazoweza kutumiwa tena vinakuja. Techradar's Next Up Series ni mfululizo wa programu za teknolojia za teknolojia za teknolojia za teknolojia za teknolojia za teknolojia.