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Today in design we take a look at Elon Musk’s other success story, SpaceX. Recently, SpaceX has been making leaps and bounds if the world of space travel and there are no signs of slowing down. The company’s most recent project is called the Falcon 9. In 2012, NASA contracted SpaceX to shuttle supplies to the International Space Station because the fully autonomous Falcon 9 is able to transport nearly 400 square feet of supplies without having an operator on board the craft. Rather than letting the propulsion component to the rocket crash to the ground, SpaceX has designed the Falcon 9 to carefully return back to earth for later use when its mission is complete. Since SpaceX intends to have personnel riding the rocket, they have constructed a failsafe system using 9 Merlin engines capable of producing a combined 1,530,000 pound feet of thrust. For reference, that is more force than 5 Boeing 747s at full throttle combined. Regardless of what the Falcon 9’s mission intentions are, this 230 foot rocket is one impressive piece of machinery. Keep up the good work Elon.
