88-607: Vulcan Centaur is a heavy-lift launch vehicle created and operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA). It is a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle consisting of the Vulcan first stage and the Centaur second stage. It replaces ULA's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. It is principally designed for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, which launches satellites for U.S. intelligence agencies and
176-472: A $ 1.9 billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to $ 46 billion . In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $ 1.61 billion in an equity round from 99 investors at a per share value of approximately $ 420 , raising the company valuation to approximately $ 74 billion . By 2021, SpaceX had raised more than $ 6 billion in equity financing. Most of
264-459: A Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test . The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at $ 200 million , was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels. Though not considered an unsuccessful flight,
352-420: A booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021. Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel , after he announced a $ 100 million donation to the X Prize Foundation
440-522: A crew transport vehicle to the ISS. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012. In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth $ 875 million on private markets , valuing SpaceX at $ 1.3 billion . In May 2012, with
528-560: A goal of halving the cost of the Atlas V rocket. In 2015, ULA announced the Vulcan rocket and a proposing to incrementally replace existing vehicles with it. Vulcan deployment was expected to begin with a new first stage that was based on the Delta IV's fuselage diameter and production process, and initially expected to use two BE-4 engines or the AR1 as an alternative. The second stage was to be
616-529: A lengthed version of the GEM 63 SRBs developed for the Atlas. Vulcan Centaur offers heavy-lift capabilities in a smaller footprint than three-core vehicles. With a single core and six GEM boosters, the Vulcan Centaur can lift 27,200 kilograms (60,000 lb) to low Earth orbit (LEO). For comparison, the Atlas V could lift 18,850 kg (41,560 lb) to LEO with a single core and five GEM boosters, and
704-551: A mass simulator so Vulcan could move ahead with the certification required by its Air Force contract. Bloomberg News reported in May 2024 that United Launch Alliance was accruing financial penalties due to delays in the military launch contracts. On 10 May, Air Force Assistant Secretary Frank Calvelli wrote to Boeing and Lockheed executives. "I am growing concerned with ULA's ability to scale manufacturing of its Vulcan rocket and scale its launch cadence to meet our needs", Calvelli wrote in
792-426: A module from the propellant tanks after booster engine cutoff. The engine module then falls through the atmosphere protected by an inflatable heat shield . After parachute deployment, the engine section splashes down, using the heat shield as a raft. Before 2022, ULA intended to catch the engine section using a helicopter. ULA estimated this technology could reduce the cost of the first-stage propulsion by 90% and 65% of
880-415: A nozzle extension and six SRBs. The payload capacity of Vulcan Centaur versions are: These capabilities reflect NSSL requirements, plus room for growth. A Vulcan Centaur with six solid rocket boosters can put 27,200 kilograms into low Earth orbit, nearly as much as the three-core Delta IV Heavy. Future launches are listed chronologically when firm plans are in place. The order of the later launches
968-405: A private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet of things (IoT) devices, for $ 524 million . In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network. SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift Falcon 1
SECTION 10
#17327875654711056-417: A revenue of over $ 10 billion in 2024. In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated $ 100,000 to his Mars Society , joining its board of directors for a short time. He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis , a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for
1144-474: Is an American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas . Since its founding in 2001, the company has made numerous advancements in rocket propulsion , reusable launch vehicle , human spaceflight and satellite constellation technology. By the late 2010s, SpaceX had become the world's dominant space launch provider, its launch cadence rivaling that of
1232-448: Is an orbital launch vehicle capable of generating a large amount of lift to reach its intended orbit. Heavy-lift launch vehicles generally are capable of lifting payloads between 20,000 to 50,000 kg (44,000 to 110,000 lb) (by NASA classification) or between 20,000 to 100,000 kilograms (44,000 to 220,000 lb) (by Russian classification) into low Earth orbit (LEO). As of 2024 , operational heavy-lift launch vehicles include
1320-446: Is much less certain. Launches are expected to take place "no earlier than" (NET) the listed date. ULA plans to continually improve the Vulcan Centaur. The company plans to introduce its first upgrades in 2025, with subsequent improvements occurring roughly every two to three years. Since 2015, ULA has spoken of several technologies that would improve the Vulcan launch vehicle's capabilities. These include first-stage improvements to make
1408-746: Is similar in size as the Delta family's Common Booster Core (Vulcan is about 0.3-meter (1 ft) larger in diameter) and is built in the same manufacturing facility in Decatur, Alabama using much of the same equipment. The second stage is the Centaur V , a larger and improved version of the Centaur III used on the Atlas V, which is powered by two RL10 engines built by Aerojet Rocketdyne , fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The first stage can be supplemented by up to six GEM 63XL solid rocket boosters (SRBs) built by Northrop Grumman . These are
1496-420: Is the largest launch vehicle in history and aims to fully realize the company's vision of a fully-reusable, cost-effective and adaptable launch vehicle. SpaceX is also developing its own space suit and astronaut via its Polaris program as well as developing the human lander for lunar missions under NASA's Artemis program . SpaceX is not publicly traded; a space industry newspaper estimated that SpaceX has
1584-479: Is the number of SRBs attached to the Vulcan—0, 2, 4 or 6—and the fourth denotes the payload-fairing length: S for Standard (15.5 m (51 ft)) or L for Long (21.3 m (70 ft)). For example, "VC6L" would represent a Vulcan first stage, a Centaur upper stage, six SRBs and a long-configuration fairing. The most powerful Vulcan Centaur will have a Vulcan first stage, a Centaur upper stage with RL10CX engines with
1672-466: Is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space , ultimately by a factor of ten. SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle , the Falcon 1 , with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle . The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately $ 90 million to $ 100 million . The Falcon rocket series
1760-434: Is working to add more value to upper stages by having them perform tasks such as operating as space tugs. CEO Tory Bruno says ULA is working on upper stages with hundreds of times the endurance of those currently in use. A method of main engine reuse called Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology (SMART) is a proposed upgrade for Vulcan Centaur. In the concept, the booster engines, avionics, and thrust structure detach as
1848-512: The COVID-19 pandemic , delaying the mission and Vulcan Centaur's first launch; further Peregrine delays put the launch of Vulcan into 2023. In March 2023, a Centaur V test stage failed during a test sequence. To fix the problem, ULA changed the structure of the stage and built a new Centaur for Vulcan Centaur's maiden flight. In October 2023, ULA announced they aimed to launch Vulcan Centaur by year's end. On 8 January 2024, Vulcan lifted off for
SECTION 20
#17327875654711936-634: The Chinese space program and eclipsing all those of its private competitors. SpaceX, NASA and the United States Armed Forces work closely together by means of governmental contracts . SpaceX was founded by Elon Musk in 2001 with a vision of decreasing the costs of space launches, paving the way to a sustainable colony on Mars . In 2008, when SpaceX was almost bankrupt, Falcon 1 successfully launched into orbit after three failed launch attempts. The company then pivoted towards
2024-546: The Defense Department , but ULA believes it will also be able to price missions low enough to attract commercial launches. ULA began developing the Vulcan in 2014, largely to compete with SpaceX 's Falcon 9 and to comply with a Congressional requirement to stop using the Russian-made RD-180 engine that powered the Atlas V. The first flight of the Vulcan Centaur was initially slated for 2019, but
2112-789: The Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station . After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to $ 2.4 billion or $ 20 /share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $ 1 billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $ 200 million , with Musk investing approximately $ 100 million and other investors having put in about $ 100 million . SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of
2200-584: The Falcon 5 . The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9 , a reusable heavier lift vehicle . Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA , which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The overall contract award
2288-838: The Long March 5 and the Proton-M . In addition, the Angara A5 , the Falcon 9 Block 5 , the Falcon Heavy , the Vulcan Centaur , Ariane 6 , and New Glenn are designed to provide heavy-lift capabilities in at least some configurations but have not yet been proven to carry a 20-tonne payload into LEO. Several other heavy-lift rockets are in development. An HLV is between medium-lift launch vehicles and super heavy-lift launch vehicles . SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. , commonly referred to as SpaceX ,
2376-533: The Peregrine's propulsion system shortly after separation prevented it from landing on the Moon; Astrobotic said the Vulcan Centaur rocket performed without problems. On 14 August 2019, ULA won a commercial competition when it was announced the second Vulcan certification flight would be named SNC Demo-1, the first of seven Dream Chaser CRS-2 flights under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services program. They will use
2464-586: The Starship and Starlink projects. The purpose of the Starship vehicle is to enable large-scale transit of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX's Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with a payload capacity of 100+ tons. Construction of initial prototypes and tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction and testing moved to
2552-578: The United States Air Force (USAF) had committed up to $ 202 million for Vulcan development. ULA had not yet estimated the total cost of development but CEO Tory Bruno said that "new rockets typically cost $ 2 billion, including $ 1 billion for the main engine". In March 2018, Bruno said the Vulcan-Centaur had been "75% privately funded" up to that point. In October 2018, following a request for proposals and technical evaluation, ULA
2640-480: The first successful first-stage landing in 2015 and re-launch of the first stage in 2017 . Falcon Heavy , built from three Falcon 9 boosters, first flew in 2018 after a more than decade-long development process. As of October 2024, the company's Falcon 9 rockets have landed and flown again more than 330 times , reaching 1–2 launches a week. These milestones delivered the company much-needed investment and SpaceX sought to diversify its sources of income. In 2019,
2728-425: The modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch costs. In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer, Jim Cantrell and John Garvey (Cantrell and Garvey would later found
Vulcan Centaur - Misplaced Pages Continue
2816-565: The California Secretary of State. The move to relocate SpaceX's headquarters was seen as largely symbolic, at least in the short term. The Hawthorne facility continues to support the company's Falcon launch vehicles, which was SpaceX's workhorse product in 2024. SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission featured the first-ever private spacewalk, marking a major milestone in commercial space exploration. In January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance
2904-603: The Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions after certification. In January 2015, SpaceX raised $ 1 billion in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments , in exchange for 8.33% of
2992-519: The Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months. In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a $ 75 million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as
3080-448: The Moon. On 18 November 2023, SpaceX launched its second integrated Starship test , with both vehicles flying for a few minutes before separately exploding. In early March 2024 SpaceX announced that it was targeting 14 March as the tentative launch date for its next uncrewed Starship launch configuration flight test, pending the issuance of a "launch license" by the FAA . This license
3168-592: The Pentagon's reliance on the Atlas V, which used the made-in-Russia RD-180 engine. In 2016, Congress would pass a law barring the military from procuring launch services based on the RD-180 engine after 2022. In September 2018, ULA announced that it had picked the BE-4 engine from Blue Origin and fueled by liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (CH 4 ) to replace the RD-180 on a new first-stage booster. The engine
3256-478: The Vulcan's debut launch. Testing continued proceeded with the pathfinder booster throughout that year. In August 2019, ULA said Vulcan Centaur would first fly in early 2021, carrying Astrobotic Technology 's Peregrine lunar lander . By December 2020, the launch had been delayed to 2022 because of technical problems with the BE-4 main engine. In June 2021, Astrobotic said Peregrine would not be ready on time due to
3344-516: The atmosphere behind an inflatable heat shield. Through the first several years, the ULA board of directors made quarterly funding commitments to Vulcan Centaur development. As of October 2018, the US government had committed about $ 1.2 billion in a public–private partnership to Vulcan Centaur development, with plans for more once ULA concluded a National Security Space Launch contract. By March 2016,
3432-826: The capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 100.3 billion . On 16 April 2021, Starship HLS won a contract to play a critical role in the NASA crewed spaceflight Artemis program . By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink . A new round of financing in 2022 valued SpaceX at $ 127 billion . In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas , landing
3520-565: The company Vector Launch ), rocket engineer Tom Mueller , and Chris Thompson. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California . Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees. Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX
3608-481: The company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage. A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when
Vulcan Centaur - Misplaced Pages Continue
3696-404: The company raised $ 350 million , which raised its valuation to $ 21 billion . In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts. By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about $ 12 billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This made SpaceX
3784-414: The company, establishing the company valuation at approximately $ 12 billion . The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink , to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites. The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem
3872-522: The competition from SpaceX. Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA). The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over $ 400 million over the years. In September 2014, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, Kevin Crigler, awarded SpaceX
3960-500: The cryogenic liquid hydrogen fuel used on Delta, methane is more dense with a much higher boiling point, allowing fuel tanks to be constructed smaller and lighter. Methane also burns cleaner than the kerosene fuel used on Atlas, which enables engines to be more easily reused as they are less likely to be contaminated and eventually clogged with hydrocarbon combustion byproducts. This characteristic will be important if ULA implements its proposed SMART reuse system. The Vulcan first stage
4048-448: The developer of Project Kuiper. In September 2020, ULA announced they were studying a "Vulcan Heavy" variant with three booster cores. Speculation about a new variant had been rampant for months after an image of a model of that version popped on social media. ULA CEO Tory Bruno later tweeted a clearer image of the model and said it was the subject of ongoing study. Heavy-lift launch vehicle A heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLV)
4136-569: The development of the larger Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon 1 capsule to satisfy NASA 's COTS contracts for deliveries to the International Space Station . By 2012, SpaceX finished all COTS test flights and began delivering Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station. Also around that time, SpaceX started developing hardware to make the Falcon 9 first stage reusable . The company demonstrated
4224-755: The end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft . In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $ 396 million to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program . The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new U.S. launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike . The first three launches of
4312-510: The existing Centaur III, already used on Atlas V. A later upgrade, the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES), was planned to be introduced a few years after Vulcan's first flight. ULA also revealed a design concept for reuse of the Vulcan booster engines, thrust structure and first stage avionics, which could be detached as a module from the propellant tanks after booster engine cutoff ; the module would re-enter
4400-417: The first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning to deploy what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year. In 2022, most SpaceX launches focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 6,000 satellites in orbit. On 16 July 2021, SpaceX entered an agreement to acquire Swarm Technologies ,
4488-474: The first operational satellite of the Starlink internet satellite constellation came online. In subsequent years, Starlink generated the bulk of SpaceX's income and paved the way for its Starshield military counterpart. In 2020, SpaceX began to operate its Dragon 2 capsules to deliver crewed missions for NASA and private entities. Around this time, SpaceX began building test prototypes for Starship , which
SECTION 50
#17327875654714576-458: The first successful launch achieved on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $ 30 million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarding $ 1.6 billion to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1
4664-660: The first time. The flight used the VC2S configuration, with two solid rocket boosters and a standard-length fairing. A 4-minute trans-lunar injection burn followed by payload separation put the Peregrine lander on a trajectory to the Moon. One hour and 18 minutes into the flight, the Centaur upper stage fired for a third time, sending it into a heliocentric orbit to test how it would behave in long missions, such as those required to send payloads to geostationary orbit . A failure in
4752-415: The four-SRB VC4 configuration. The SNC Demo-1 was scheduled for launch no earlier than April 2024. After Vulcan Centaur's second certification mission, the rocket will be qualified for use on U.S. military missions. As of August 2020, Vulcan was to launch ULA's awarded 60% share of National Security Space Launch payloads from 2022 to 2027, but delays occurred. The Space Force 's USSF-51 launch in late 2022
4840-794: The greater war between Russia and Ukraine, Starlink was extensively used . In 2022, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year. SpaceX launched a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, with 61 launches in total. All but one (a Falcon Heavy in November) was on a Falcon 9 rocket. In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire its parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $ 2.2 million . On 16 July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California , to SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas . Musk said this
4928-469: The landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings ( VTOL ). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013. SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide. That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face
5016-412: The launch sequence of a space vehicle. In the case of a rocket that must be self-destructed during its ascent, max q occurs at the point of self-destruction. Eventually, the vehicle lost control and spun erratically until the automated flight termination system was activated, which intentionally destroyed the rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and other individuals familiar with the space industry have referred to
5104-413: The leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches. In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company , and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, using a small number of SpaceX employees, which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018. During 2018, The Boring Company
5192-527: The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Post . "Currently there is military satellite capability sitting on the ground due to Vulcan delays." In June 2024, Bruno announced that Vulcan would make its second flight in September with a mass simulator with some "experiments and demonstrations" to help develop future technology for the Centaur upper stage. Vulcan Centaur lifted off on
5280-565: The most expensive components potentially reusable and second-stage improvements to allow the rocket to operate for months in Earth-orbit cislunar space . The ACES upper stage—fueled with liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid hydrogen (LH 2 ) and powered by up to four rocket engines with the engine type yet to be selected—was a conceptual upgrade to Vulcan's upper stage at the time of the announcement in 2015. This stage could be upgraded to include Integrated Vehicle Fluids technology that would allow
5368-457: The new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year. On 20 April 2023, Starship's first orbital flight test ended in a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, multiple engines in the booster progressively failed, causing the vehicle to reach max q later than planned. "Max q" is the theoretical point of maximal mechanical stress which occurs during
SECTION 60
#17327875654715456-558: The nozzle on one of the GEM-63XL solid rocket boosters falling off which led to reduced, asymmetrical thrust. The Vulcan Centaur re-uses many technologies from ULA's Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles, with an aim to achieve better performance and lower production costs. The biggest change between Vulcan first stage and its predecessors is that it uses liquid methane (liquefied natural gas) as its fuel along with liquid oxygen in two BE-4 engines built by Blue Origin . Compared to
5544-530: The parts of Vulcan's mobile launcher platform (MLP) were transported to the Spaceflight Processing Operations Center (SPOC) near SLC-40 and SLC-41 , Cape Canaveral , Florida . The MLP was fabricated in eight sections and moves at 3 mph (4.8 km/h) on rail bogies, standing 183 ft (56 m) tall. In February 2021, ULA shipped the first completed Vulcan core booster to Florida for pathfinder tests ahead of
5632-555: The previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best carbon capture technology . In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine . Since that invasion and in
5720-531: The project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell . Musk returned with his team to Moscow, this time bringing Michael Griffin , who later became the 11th Administrator of NASA , but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home, Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead. By applying vertical integration , using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting
5808-553: The rocket explosion sent the company into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned to flight in January 2017. In March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space. The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket. In July 2017,
5896-514: The rocket to slightly tilt before the guidance system and main engines successfully corrected and extended their burn by roughly 20 seconds to compensate. Despite the anomaly, the rocket achieved a perfect orbital insertion. In a press release after the launch, the Space Force called the test flight a "certification milestone" and a significant achievement for both ULA and the nation's strategic space lift capability. The Space Force added that it
5984-401: The rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well, and consequently Tesla , SolarCity , and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress. The financial situation started to turn around with
6072-451: The second of two flights needed to certify the rocket for future NSSL missions at 11:25 UTC on 4 October 2024. Approximately 37 seconds into the launch, the nozzle on one of the solid rocket boosters (SRB) fell off resulting in a shower of debris in the exhaust plume. Although the SRB continued to function for its full 90-second burn, the anomaly led to reduced, asymmetrical thrust. This caused
6160-415: The test flight as a success. Musk said at the time that it would take "six to eight weeks" to get the infrastructure prepared for another launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX executive stated the company had been ready to launch the next test flight since September. He accused government regulators of disrupting the project's progress, adding the delay could lead to China beating U.S. astronauts back to
6248-754: The three-core Delta IV Heavy could lift 28,790 kg (63,470 lb) to LEO. Vulcan has been designed to meet the requirements of the National Security Space Launch program and is designed to achieve human-rating certification to allow the launch of a vehicle such as the Boeing Starliner or Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser . ULA decided to develop the Vulcan Centaur in 2014 for two main reasons. First, its commercial and civil customers were flocking to SpaceX 's cheaper Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle , leaving ULA increasingly reliant on U.S. military and spy agency contracts. Second, Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 heightened Congressional discomfort with
6336-490: The total first-stage cost. Although SMART reuse was not initially funded for development, from 2021 the higher launch cadence required to launch the Project Kuiper mega constellation provided support for the concept's business case. Consequently, ULA has stated that it plans to begin testing the technology during its launches of the satellite internet constellation, with timing of the tests to be agreed upon with Amazon,
6424-487: The upper stage to function in orbit for weeks instead of hours. The ACES upper stage was cancelled in September 2020, and ULA said the Vulcan second stage would now be the Centaur V upper stage: a larger, more powerful version of the Dual Engine Centaur upper stage used by the Atlas V N22. A senior executive at ULA said the Centaur V design was also heavily influenced by ACES. However, ULA said in 2021 that it
6512-640: The upper stage was changed to the larger and heavier Centaur V, and the launch vehicle was renamed Vulcan Centaur. In May 2018, ULA announced the selection of Aerojet Rocketdyne 's RL10 engine for the Vulcan Centaur upper stage. That September, ULA announced the selection of the Blue Origin BE-4 engine for Vulcan's first stage. In October, the USAF released an NSSL launch service agreement with new requirements, delaying Vulcan's initial launch to April 2021, after an earlier postponement to 2020. In August 2019,
6600-613: Was $ 278 million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft , Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon. As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit , using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft. The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1 ,
6688-401: Was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk. In 2019 SpaceX raised $ 1.33 billion of capital across three funding rounds. By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $ 33.3 billion and reached $ 36 billion by March 2020. On 19 August 2020, after
6776-475: Was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts ( Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken ) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2 , making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida. In May 2019, SpaceX launched
6864-429: Was already in its third year of development, and ULA said it expected the new stage and engine to start flying as soon as 2019. Two of the 2,400- kilonewton (550,000 lbf )-thrust BE-4 engines were to be used on a new launch vehicle booster. A month later, ULA restructured company processes and its workforce to reduce costs. The company said that the successor to Atlas V would blend existing Atlas V and Delta IV with
6952-519: Was awarded $ 967 million to develop a prototype Vulcan launch system as part of the National Security Space Launch program. In September 2015, it was announced BE-4 rocket engine production would be expanded to allow more testing. The following January, ULA was designing two versions of the Vulcan first stage; the BE-4 version has a 5.4 m (18 ft) diameter to support the use of the less dense methane fuel. In late 2017,
7040-557: Was be the first national security classified mission, but in May 2021 the spacecraft was reassigned to an Atlas V to "mitigate schedule risk associated with Vulcan Centaur non-recurring design validation". For similar reasons, the Kuiper Systems prototype flight was moved to an Atlas V rocket. After Vulcan's first launch in January 2024, developmental delays with the Dream Chaser led ULA to contemplate replacing it with
7128-464: Was because the recently passed California AB1955 bill "and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies". This new law in California bans school districts from requiring that teachers notify parents about changes to a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity. The headquarters officially moved to Brownsville, Texas in August 2024, according to records filed with
7216-488: Was delayed multiple times by developmental problems with its new BE-4 first-stage engine and the Centaur second-stage. The Vulcan Centaur had a near perfect first launch on 8 January 2024 carrying the Peregrine lunar lander , the first mission of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. It made its second launch, a NSSL certification flight, on 4 October 2024, which achieved a perfect orbital insertion, despite
7304-486: Was granted on 13 March 2024. On 14 March 2024 at 13:25 UTC, Starship launched for the 3rd time and for the first time Starship reached its planned suborbital trajectory. The flight ended with the booster experiencing a malfunction shortly before landing and the ship being lost during reentry over the Indian Ocean. On 4 June 2024, SpaceX received the launch license for Starship's 4th test flight. The licensure itself
7392-554: Was named after Star Wars ' s Millennium Falcon fictional spacecraft. In 2004, SpaceX protested against NASA to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of a sole-source contract awarded to Kistler Aerospace . Before the GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract, and formed the COTS program . In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through
7480-548: Was notable in that it was the first time that the FAA included a clause that would allow SpaceX to launch subsequent test flights without a mishap investigation, provided that they met a similar launch profile and used the same specification of hardware. The provision could prove to speed the development timeline. On 12 October 2024, SpaceX received FAA approval for Starship's 5th test flight. SpaceX launched Starship on its 6th test flight on 19 November 2024. A significant milestone
7568-494: Was reviewing the launch data to determine Vulcan's suitability for future national security missions. Space Force Colonel James Horne later praised the launch and "the robustness of the total Vulcan system", with the USSF "knee deep in finalizing certification". ULA has four-character designations for the various Vulcan Centaur configurations. They start with VC for the Vulcan first stage and the Centaur upper stage. The third character
7656-708: Was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009. This allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier . SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle,
7744-403: Was traced to a failed two-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel , which broke free due to the force of acceleration . This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank , causing the failure. SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20 . In April 2016,
#470529