PALO ALTO, May 11 — The next launch by Space Exploration Technologies Corp appears almost routine by now: A satellite owned by Bangladesh will blast toward orbit on top of a reusable Falcon 9 rocket, then the booster will land back on a drone ship to be launched again at a later date. SpaceX has already done this 24 times.
But today will mark the debut of a new-and-improved version of the rocket, called Falcon 9 Block 5, that SpaceX crafted to be capable of rapidly getting sent back into space. It’ll be able to handle 10 or more flights with limited refurbishment, according to the company. Within the next year, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk wants to fly the same vehicle twice within a 24-hour period.
Block 5 is the latest—and final—major upgrade by SpaceX to its workhorse Falcon 9. Musk described some of the changes on a call with reporters yesterday: More powerful engines, with an 8 per cent increase in thrust; a stronger heat shield for the trip back through Earth's atmosphere; a black “interstage” that joins the upper and lower stages of the rocket; and new retractable landing legs.
“SpaceX will launch more rockets than any other country in 2018,” Musk said during the call, hours before the company postponed the first mission involving its updated Falcon 9 by a day. “One of the biggest goals of Block 5 is ease of reusability
Frequent upgrades are common across Musk’s big products. At Tesla Inc, customers receive over-the-air software updates to the electric vehicles sitting in their driveways—something other automakers have been slow to offer.
The engineers at SpaceX are likewise engaged in tweaks to their rockets. Each launch of the Falcon 9—along with the two dozen boosters now recovered — has given SpaceX insight into performance against the intense environment of space. This data helps improve the next iteration of the rocket.
The steady stream of technical improvements helps bolster the business model. “The big breakthrough of Block 5 is it represents a new generation of design that they plan to re-fly 10 times,” said Luigi Peluso, an aerospace and defense consultant at AlixPartners. “That’s enormous from an economic perspective.”
The current cost of a Falcon 9 launch is roughly US62 million (RM247.7 million), according to SpaceX’s website. Greg Autry, a professor at the University of Southern California and a former Nasa liaison to the White House, estimates that the booster accounts for roughly US$35 million of the total cost. Flying more regularly will allow SpaceX to lower costs.
“If they can build a rocket that good, all they need to do is add fuel,” Autry said. “They don’t need to pass the savings on to customers, because their launch manifest is already full. Right now, SpaceX has data on boosters that have flown once or twice. They are probably being conservative when they say 10.”
There’s another imperative beyond bringing down costs. Boeing Co and SpaceX have contracts with Nasa to ferry American astronauts for the first time since the Space Shuttle programme went dark in 2011, and each company needs to complete a flurry of tests over the coming months.
