Cheap Space Travel - SpaceX’s Breakthrough

The biggest problem NASA has faced with space travel is the astounding costs involved in launching rockets. It can cost a staggering 500 million dollars per launch and not every launch is successful. Because of this, NASA, the ESA, and other space companies have been facing a lot of scrutiny over their spending. NASA is a government corporation and many people do not like that about .5% of their taxes go to this program, which doesn't seem to be benefiting them. However that is not entirely true, NASA’s technologies have had many real world applications and they have helped create everything from artificial limbs, to solar panels, to baby formula.

However, even with the many benefits these technologies provide, NASA is still under pressure to cut costs and launch rockets for less.

SpaceX, a space faring company led by the accomplished entrepreneur Elon Musk, has begun working on new ways to save money. SpaceX, which is under contract by NASA to resupply the International Space Station and launch satellites, has been trying to make their rockets reusable to cut costs substantially. On April 8, 2016, SpaceX successfully landed their DragonV2 rocket’s first stage booster on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. This was SpaceX’s 8th tested booster landing, as they adjusted the landing from mistakes made by the previous attempts. Now that they have successfully landed on their 8th test, SpaceX’s new goal is to prove they can land it consistently. To land the rocket, SpaceX used GPS and satellite technology to locate the drone ship where it was landing, and the rocket used a sophisticated program that determined the amount of thrust the booster needed to land safely, using data from the failures of previous tests. This may not seem like a huge achievement, however it is extremely important. This is the first step to being able to reuse rockets and reduce rocket launch costs. If SpaceX can repeat this rocket booster landing, they can continue to reuse the same boosters. That would mean saving millions and millions on rocket production. Space travel will only ‘take off’ in private companies when it is cost effective. SpaceX has taken the first step to rocket reusability, and will continue to make space travel cheaper for private and governmental companies like NASA in years to come.

Works Cited

http://www.spacex.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmQQn_ZSys

https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

http://www.space.com/32517-spacex-sticks-rocket-landing-sea-dragon-launch.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-spacex-rocket-science-20160417-story.html