Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
SpaceX contracted with the US government for a portion of the development funding for the Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which uses a modified version of the Merlin rocket engine. [87] SpaceX developed the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, [88] the Raptor methane-fueled rocket engine, [89] and a set of reusable launch vehicle technologies with private ...
Kestrel was a LOX/RP-1 pressure-fed rocket engine, and was developed by SpaceX as the Falcon 1 rocket's second stage main engine; it was used in 2006–2009. It was built around the same pintle architecture as SpaceX's Merlin engine but does not have a turbo-pump, and is fed only by tank pressure.
Like the Saturn family of rockets, multiple engines allow for mission completion even if one fails. [4] [134] Detailed descriptions of destructive engine failure modes and designed-in engine-out capabilities were made public. [135] SpaceX emphasized that the first stage is designed for "engine-out" capability. [4]
During April 2015, SpaceX performed tanking tests on the In-Flight Abort rocket on the Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-4E. Since this rocket only had three Merlin 1D engines, and the New Mexico site was to have been used for testing the returned first stages, it was speculated that the discontinued F9R Dev2 was re-purposed as the launch vehicle ...
SpaceX's first launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, was the first privately developed liquid fueled launch vehicle to be launched into orbit, and used SpaceX's Merlin and Kestrel engines for its first and second stages, respectively.
SpaceX uses a high degree of vertical integration in the production of its rockets and rocket engines. [17] SpaceX builds its rocket engines, rocket stages, spacecraft, principal avionics and all software in-house in their Hawthorne facility, which is unusual for the space industry. [17] The Hawthorne facility was SpaceX's headquarters until ...
The 397-foot-tall rocket blasted off from SpaceX's Boca Chica, Texas, flight facility on the Texas Gulf Coast at 8:25 a.m. EDT, putting on a spectacular sunrise show as the booster's 33 methane ...
The third version of the Falcon 9 was developed in 2014–2015 and made its maiden flight in December 2015. The Falcon 9 Full Thrust is a modified reusable variant of the Falcon 9 family with capabilities that exceed the Falcon 9 v1.1, including the ability to "land the first stage for geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) missions on the drone ship" [14] [15] The rocket was designed using ...