SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule and successful project management

¶ … Aviation Project - SpaceX

The current aerospace technologies being built and flown by the private commercial company known as SpaceX (from California) have a remarkable record of success thus far. The "Dragon," which is the cargo capsule built by SpaceX, put into orbit by the Falcon 9 launch rocket, delivered its second load of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, March 3 (Segal, 2013). The SpaceX contract with NASA is for a total of twelve cargo missions to the ISS over the coming years; the first Dragon cargo ship was launched and delivered supplies to the International Space Station in October, 2012. The un-manned Dragon is designed to carry supplies to and from the ISS, and it is the first privately built commercial spacecraft to handle those chores -- or conduct any space-related activities per se. NASA contracted with SpaceX in 2008 after NASA had retired its fleet of space shuttles and yet the agency still needed to be able to resupply the ISS.

How did this company become a success story?

SpaceX is owned by Silicon Valley investor and innovator Elon Musk, who has developed an electric car (Tesla Motors) that won Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" for 2013. Musk, who also co-founded the PayPal (which eBay bought for $1.3 billion), vowed several years ago to produce the best electric car ever built, and he also vowed that it would be the "best performance sedan in the marketplace" (Rutter, 2013). According to The Motley Fool (an investment-formatted column) the Model S. Tesla sedan is the best electric car on the market and it does perform better than any other sedan (Rutter, p. 1).

Musk is a visionary person who has developed a "space transportation system" (which is considered much more than a launch vehicle and a cargo spacecraft) that Steward Money of NBC News calls "…a rare bargain for taxpayers" (Money, 2012). Musk's success has offered what Money calls "…indisputable proof that a new approach to space transportation can work far more effectively than the old ways" (p. 2). One of the attractive aspects of SpaceX (besides the fact that it is cheaper than NASA's other options and it is safer as well) is that it is 100% built in the United States. For example, the main engine in the Atlas 5 rocket (build by United Launch Alliance, a company hoping to compete with SpaceX) is built in Russia, and the second stage of the ATK Liberty (another potential competitor to SpaceX) is built in Europe.

SpaceX has been successful because of a grant from NASA ($396 million), because of the use of technologically advanced engineers brought to California from NASA, and because SpaceX has instituted safety design functions "…that exceed NASA's crew safety standards" (Money, p. 2). Moreover, the liquid-fueled rockets used by SpaceX are safer than solid rocket boosters because liquid-fueled rockets can be shut off. When a launch vehicle using solid boosters has "a bad day," it can be disastrous, Money explains.

While most of the SpaceX workforce is under 30 years of age, there are a number of older engineers with NASA experience; they have "…seen it all before and know how to eliminate waste to produce a system that's safe, yet cost-effective," Money explains on page 3.

The Dragon's details

The Dragon can carry over 2,300 pounds of "pressurized and unpressurized cargo" to the ISS, and can bring over 3,000 pounds back to earth (Ra, 2013). The payload going up to the ISS is extremely important because valuable science investigations are ongoing on the ISS. The Dragon has three main elements: a) the nosecone protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during its flight to the ISS; b) the spacecraft itself, which will house a crew (with a "habitable cabin") and the cargo including the "service section (avionics, the RCS system, parachutes and other support materials); and the "Trunk," which carries "unpressurized" cargo and which supports the solar arrays that provide electricity for the craft (Ra, p. 2).

The Dragon has 18 thrusters for maneuvering, and it uses nitrogen tetroxide / monomethylhydrazine as propellants, Ra explains. Once in space, the Dragon has two large solar arrays to provide electricity and for re-entry into the earth's atmosphere the Dragon has "…the most powerful heat shield in the world," made with PICA-X, which is a variant of NASA's original heat shield (Ra, p. 2). And the crew has an "escape system" which the Space Shuttle program did not offer.

In conclusion, the SpaceX engineers ran into some problems during the design and development of the Falcon 9 and the Dragon, but they were ironed out and this space transportation system SpaceX has created is cheaper and more effective than previous NASA-built systems. It bodes well for the future of America's space program that a private commercial company could build systems that work well and cost less.