How SpaceX’s Starship became NASA’s choice to go to the Moon by 2024.

NASA has declared the three commercial teams that have been slated to create space vehicles that will return human beings to the lunar surface in four years. 

They are Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Dynetics, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Of the three, SpaceX’s proposal has the highest potential to land that next man and the first woman on the Moon’s surface by 2024.

SpaceX’s entrance into the business race to land on the lunar surface is a transformed variant of the Starship. The huge rocket being created in Boca Chica, Texas. 

The SpaceX’s Starship, which would be propelled into Earth orbit by an even larger rocket designated the SuperHeavy, is Elon’s SpaceX’s vehicle to create a settlement on Mars. And once in Earth orbit, it would be refueled by another Starship configured as a massive tanker before going to Mars. SpaceX’s Starship could also go to the Moon and back in a similar way.

SpaceX’s Starship, NASA’s “Lunar Starship”

To shoehorn Starship into NASA’s favored design, the “Lunar Starship” would fly without the flaps and heat shield required to return back to Earth. Once the Starship arrives in lunar orbit, the Moon version of the Starship would dock with an Orion spaceship delivered by the superheavy-lift Space Launch System. 

The astronauts would shift to the “Lunar Starship” and ride down to the lunar surface. And, when the mission is completed, the SpaceX’s Starship would take off, dock with the Orion spaceship that had been left in orbit around the Moon and transfer the astronauts. The crew would then ride Orion back to Earth.

The Starship is NASA’s primary choice for landing people on the lunar surface by 2024. It is because it’s in the original configuration. It doesn’t need the Orion or the Space Launch System to take cargo and people to and from the Moon’s surface. And that is very important when it considers how late and expensive the Space Launch System has become. 

SpaceX’s Starship is Capable of Delivering 100 tons of Freight.

The newest improvement is the revelation that the Space Launch System may have leaky fuel tanks. One can envision a situation in which the Space Launch System continues to experience mounting costs and extended delays so that it places the 2024 return to the Moon’s date in danger.

Furthermore, one can assume SpaceX is making progress on the “Lunar Starship.” And part of the company’s proposal for the lunar lander is to show in-orbit refueling and then land the Starship on the lunar surface without a crew. The SpaceX’s Starship would also be capable of delivering 100 tons of freight along with the crew.

NASA may be met with an awkward choice if it still means to land on the lunar surface by 2024. They may have to use the Starship without the joining of the Orion and the Space Launch System.

The first option would be to launch straight from Earth to the Moon and back as SpaceX planned initially. The straight flight to the Moon would require that SpaceX attach the heat shield, flaps, and anything else needed to land Starship on Earth.

NASA Will Use Starship To The Moon 2024

So, The space agency may decide that certifying a new spacecraft for both a human launch and landing to be too costly. NASA has another option to use the Starship to achieve its mission to land on the Moon by 2024.

The plan would be to launch SpaceX’s Starship without astronauts into low Earth orbit. And then, use another Starship to fill up its tanks. They would then blast off in a crewed Dragon. The crew take the Starship straight to the Moon and make world history. Afterward, the astronauts take the Starship back to Earth orbit and transfer into a waiting Crewed Dragon, returning home to universal praise.

In the meantime, three private groups will strive to create the space vehicle that will take Americans back to the lunar surface, the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The public-private corporation meets many obstacles, some political, some technical. Congress needs fully fund the effort, even in the heath of the coronavirus pandemic.

How Elon Musk Took SpaceX From An Idea Into Making History

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – On Saturday, May 30, SpaceX, Elon Musk’s nearly 20-year-old business is to fulfill its most important mission to date.

Two astronauts are planned to board a Crew Dragon space capsule and take off from Florida on a specific trajectory to the International Space Station. It will mark the first time the company has propelled humans, as well as the first time in almost a decade that astronauts blast off from American soil on an American rocket.

Everything launch, orbit, docking, and then departure and splashdown will have to be perfect. The two astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken, depend on it.

The 48-year-old entrepreneur Elon Musk has used his business vision to break into established industries ranging from investment to launch services to transportation. It’s no secret that he knows the hustle – and welcomes it.

His hard-work-pays-off character has elevated him and his employees to run the company worth billions. SpaceX and Tesla became the most valuable American carmaker this year, surpassing veterans such as General Motors and Ford.

Elon’s hard-charging ways have sometimes landed him in hot water.

How did Elon Musk, worth about $35 billion, get to the point of putting humans on the historic pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center?

To know this, we’ll need to start around 8,000 miles away in South Africa.

Elon Musk’s Early Life And Progress Into Business.

Born to an engineer father and a model mother in Pretoria, South Africa, Elon grew up with an insatiable appetite for technology, reading, and computers. Those interests became especially important when he was bullied in school, and they encouraged him to form the basis for his technical nature.

And before his adolescence, he had begun writing computer software.

His mind just needs to be continuously fulfilled, and the problems he takes on, therefore, need to be more and more complex over time to keep him interested, according to his brother.

He discovered more complex problems to solve in North America, where he had relations through his Canada-born mother and his American grandparents. Furthermore, degrees in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania paved the way for him to proceed to graduate school at Stanford, but he left before earning a degree. Business ideas controlled his mind.

Elon Musk’s First Major Company Investment Was Zip2.

Elon Musk’s first major company investment was Zip2. It was a kind of online directory established in 1995 that involved maps – a major feature considering digital directions wouldn’t become universal until smartphones came along more than a decade later. The business grew online city guides for The New York Times, which reported in 1999 that Zip2 was sold to Compaq Computer for $300 million.

In 1999, Elon co-founded X.com, one of the first online financial services companies. And after a series of transitions and mergers, it was renamed to something more accustomed to today’s users: PayPal.

Furthermore, when eBay acquired the company for $1.5 billion in 2002, Elon made about $160 million from the deal, setting him up to individually invest in his long-forming dream of beginning Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX.

How NASA Preserved SpaceX

To get his spaceflight ambitions off the ground, Elon tried to buy refurbished Russian ballistic rockets. That proved to be too costly, and working with Russian officials was challenging.

After his second trip back from Russia, he was like, “Whoa, there’s got to be a better way to solve this rocket problem,” Elon said at the 2018 South By Southwest convention in Austin, Texas. So, he embarked on that journey to create SpaceX in 2002.

Elon knew he was enrolling an established, high-risk industry: In the beginning, he actually wouldn’t even let his friends invest because he thought everyone would lose their money. He thought he’d rather lose his own money.

Elon was convinced he could lower the cost of access to space. So, enter Falcon 1.

Over the years, NASA saved SpaceX. And after Falcon 1 failed to reach orbit three times in a row, but succeeded on the fourth try, his upstart business was strapped for cash. Two days before Christmas in 2008, NASA declared SpaceX had been awarded a $1.6 billion deal to fly supplies to the famous International Space Station, a program known as Commercial Resupply Services.

And, since 2012, SpaceX has operated Dragon to the International Space Station twenty times on later Falcon 9 rockets. The Crew Dragon capsule has flown to the ISS once and is slated for its second trip with Hurley and Behnken.

Elon Musk Lease Launch Complex 40

Elon’s business staged coup after coup. In 2007, it obtained the rights to lease Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40, which had hosted Titan rockets earlier.

Musk was most impressive in cobbling together what was needed for a triumphant launch site with pieces and whatever was available,” according to Dale Ketcham, Space Florida vice president of government and external relations. 

And some of Elon’s most memorable achievements were based on his capacity to make stuff happen by using what was available and using simple physics to get done what needed to get done. That was opposite to how things had been done up until that point, according to Ketcham. 

Apart From Mars, One of Elon’s Main Goals is Reusability.

Apart from Mars, one of Elon’s main goals is reusability. An airline doesn’t discard a Boeing 747 after each flight. Similarly, Elon wants rockets to be reused.

More than fifty SpaceX boosters have flown into space and back to Earth – either to an offshore drone ship or to Florida, California – where some were refurbished for later flights.

The launch provider’s pricing supports Elon’s belief that reusability will bring down the price of getting cargo and people to orbit. A typical Falcon 9 launch costs around $50 million to about $60 million, which is significantly more economical than other orbital space vehicles in its class.

So, with SpaceX’s Starlink, the company’s constellation of low-orbit satellites that can beam internet connectivity to the ground, Elon is building the return streams required to fund his desire to create a space vehicle capable of traveling to Mars. And that space vehicle, known as Starship, is a huge rocket in prototype form at SpaceX’s isolated facility in Boca Chica, Texas.

Space Shuttle Astronaut And Engineer Garrett Reisman.

Space shuttle astronaut and engineer Garrett Reisman, who joined SpaceX in 2011 and consults for the company, said his fascination with engineering and technology drives a portion of Elon’s success.

“I first met Musk for my job interview,” Reisman said to the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Today. “All he desired to talk about were technical matters. We talked a lot regarding different central propulsion system design architectures.

“At the end of the interview, Reisman said, – Hey, are you sure you want to hire me? I mean, you’ve already got an astronaut, are you sure you need two astronauts here?'” Reisman asked. And Elon looked at me and said, I’m not hiring you because you’re an astronaut. I’m choosing you because you’re a good engineer.

Elon Musk’s Tesla

Elon’s engineering and tech involvement don’t stop at SpaceX.

Solar and electric car company Tesla matches into his overall concept of colonizing Mars while making Earth more habitable. Elon reinvested in the fledgling company in 2004 and rose to its leadership position, though Elon often works on the factory floor.

The luxury Model S sedan aided pave the way for later, more affordable vehicles such as the Model Y and Model 3. Tesla heavily markets energy alternatives such as solar roof tiles and battery supported grids that can help entire power communities.

Despite substantial fluctuations on Wall Street, the company routinely advances past estimates in excess of $100 billion, fighting for top spots between the world’s most valuable automakers.

Running Tesla and SpaceX, establishing new companies, and maintaining relationships with his family makes Elon a very busy billionaire.

“He’s skilled at all those different functions, but certainly what really drives him and where his passion really is his role as chief technology officer or CTO,” or chief technology officer, Reisman said. “His role as chief engineer and chief designer. That’s the part of the job that plays to his strengths.”

Elon Musk Is No Stranger To Controversies

Possessing Elon’s personality intertwined with his businesses comes with drawbacks. Musk is no stranger to controversy.

In July 2018, Elon took to Twitter – his most steady means of communicating with the outside world – and slammed a British diver who criticized Elon’s effort at rescuing a Thai soccer team stuck in a cave. Elon called the diver a “pedo guy,” which caused a considerable resentment and a lawsuit, but a jury cleared Elon.

Later, after a few months, the Securities and Exchange Commission set its sights on the Musk, who had tweeted private funding was “secured” to buy all the company’s outstanding shares and make it private. And when the claim about financing didn’t prove right, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued, claiming that his tweets misled investors and stockholders.

Elon settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Apart from fines, Elon was forced to step down as Tesla chairman but remained as CEO. Musk agreed to have his tweets monitored and cleared by higher-ups in the company.

Byt more recently, Elon found himself in the crosshairs of medical professionals and government officials around the world. His tweet claimed that the coronavirus pandemic would involve “close to zero new cases in the U.S.” by the end of April, which proved to be false, and he reopened a Tesla factory in California before officials gave the go-ahead.

“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules,” he tweeted May 11. Elon said, – I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.

The Quarrels Haven’t Slowed Tesla And SpaceX.

“Elon is a successful and brilliant guy, and has more irons in the fire than almost any human on the planet,” Ketcham said. “He’s under a lot of stress and is doing what he thinks is right. When Elon thinks he’s on the right path, he’s not scared to tell people. But that’s worked for him, and that will work for him until it doesn’t.”

The 51st anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to land the first man on the Moon will take place this summer 2020.