Learn about commercial spaceflights most successful startup in this fully updated book, which follows the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have placed SpaceX at the forefront of the launch industry and positioned it as the most likely candidate for transporting humans to Mars.
This second edition emphasizes SpaceX's much-hyped manned mission to the Red Planet. With a plethora of new material gathered from 2013 to the present, the text offers the most up-to-date portrait of the maverick band of scientists and engineers producing some of the most spectacular aviation triumphs of the 21st century.
Topics covered in this book include: all CRS flights, the challenges of developing retro-propulsion, and the pathway towards realizing the Falcon Heavy and BFR. In addition, the chapters describe SpaceXs emphasis on simplicity, low-cost, and reliability, and the methods the company employs to reduce its costs while speeding up decision-making and delivery. Detailing the Falcon 1, Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles, the book shows how SpaceX is able to offer a full spectrum of light, medium, and heavy lift launch capabilities to its customers and how it is able to deliver spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions.
This book is the perfect go-to guide on SpaceX for anybody working or interested in the commercial space arena.
Dr. Erik Seedhouse is an associate professor in spaceflight operations and a research scientist specializing in space life sciences and physiology, the subject in which he obtained his PhD while working for the European Space Agency between 1996 and 1998. In 2009, he was one of the final candidates for selection as an astronaut in the CSAs Astronaut Recruitment Campaign. Through the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences and he he completed his suborbital scientist astronaut certification and hopes to fly on a suborbital vehicle in the near future. Between 2008-13, Seedhouse was Director of Canada's Manned Centrifuge and Hypobaric Chamber Operations. He works as an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, a manned spaceflight consultant, triathlon coach, occasional Hollywood consultant, author and public speaker.
Chapter 1: Elon Musk.- Chapter 2: Space Xers.- Chapter 3: The Engines: Merlin, Draco and Raptor.- Chapter 4: The Rockets: From the Falcon 1 to the Falcon 9, the Falcon Heavy to the BFR.- Chapter 5: The Dragons.- Chapter 6: Flight Operations.- Chapter 7: Defense Contracts.- Chapter 8: A Man on Mars in 10 Years.- Index.
