Elon Musk: Revolutionising Space Transportation with Stainless Steel – by Benjamin Spilker (Matmatch.com – July 12, 2019)

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SpaceX has come a long way. After being shocked by the absence of NASA’s concrete plans for a manned mission to Mars in the early 2000s, Elon Musk, the well-known entrepreneur and engineer, founded SpaceX in order to establish affordable access to space.

After spending a couple of years on designing, building and testing the first privately developed orbital rockets, the fourth launch of the Falcon 1 rocket into orbit was successful, marking the dawn of private space transportation.

With its proven capabilities, SpaceX was awarded a substantial contract from NASA for supply missions to the International Space Station, providing the funding for a rapid development of new launch vehicles.

Amongst the many examples, the successful reuse of orbital class rocket boosters and the construction of the currently most powerful rocket worldwide, the Falcon Heavy, are some of the outstanding innovations of SpaceX. Elon Musk aims to continue this streak of success with a seemingly bold decision.

After being ruled out in the early years of spaceflight, stainless steel has now been chosen to serve as the structural material for SpaceX’s Starship and its booster called Super Heavy. The Starship and Super Heavy combination is aimed to be the successor of the current launch vehicles Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, including all lessons learned from the extensive experience obtained with the many prosperous Falcon 9 launches.

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