SpaceX Falcon 9

[Valerij]

SPACEX COMPLETES SUCCESSFUL WET DRESS REHEARSAL[/size]
September 6, 2012

On August 31, 2012, SpaceX completed a successful wet dress rehearsal, a launch readiness test which simulates the actual countdown
of the Falcon 9 rocket. The rehearsal was in preparation for its first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station,
which is currently targeted for October.




On the morning of August 31 at Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Falcon 9 rolls from SpaceX's main hangar
out to the launch pad aboard a mobile transporter erector. Photo: SpaceX




Falcon 9 gets ready to go vertical on the launch pad. This wet dress rehearsal verifies all of the ground and launch systems
for Falcon 9, so the Dragon spacecraft can remain in the hangar, undergoing its own series of tests before flight. Photo: SpaceX




Once Falcon 9 is vertical, all personnel depart from the launch site and both stages are filled
with RP-1 fuel and liquid oxygen, as they would be for flight. Photo: SpaceX


After completing the sequence, SpaceX unloads the propellants and returns the vehicle to a pre-launch state.

In the coming weeks, SpaceX engineers will review the data and prepare for a full static test firing, where the Falcon 9's nine first stage engines ignite for a few seconds, with the vehicle held securely to the pad. That will mark the final major test before actual flight.

http://www.spacex.com/updates.php

[Димитър]

инвестиции и прочие плюсы строительства СК на "Береге Коперника"

Он хочет построить космодром за 80 М долл. в США !?
Насколько это реально?

[S.Chaban]

инвестиции и прочие плюсы строительства СК на "Береге Коперника"

Он хочет построить космодром за 80 М долл. в США !?
Насколько это реально?

80 mil only for Boca county. sounds reasonable, how much did they spent for updates at the cape?

[Valerij]

инвестиции и прочие плюсы строительства СК на "Береге Коперника"
 ....

Он хочет построить космодром за 80 М долл. в США !?
Насколько это реально?

Как не смешно - вполне реально. Правда, у него расходов в год будет порядка 50 миллионов в год (на двенадцать пусков, из них два - Фалькон Хэви), плюс примерно 600 человек с зарплатой в среднем 55 тысяч долларов в год. Другое дело, что потом этот космодром может расширяться.

З.Ы.
Но одновременно, если кто-то хорошо заинтересован и готов потратить хорошие деньги на адвокатов, то сможет замотать дело на несколько лет.

[G.K.]

У этой ракеты есть аналог блока Я  :shock: А кто ещё такое использует/использовал? (Кроме Энергии)

[Salo]

Это не аналог блока Я, а система удержания на старте.

[m-s Gelezniak]

Насколько я помню, правилами форума предполагались даже некоторые наказательные процедуры за постинг многометровых иноязычных "кирпичей" без какого-либо перевода и пояснения.

Немного выше вашего комментария вы как раз и видите требуемые вами пояснения. Они даже были размещены одновременно со статьей.

Вот еще четыре статьи из The Brownsville Herald:

1) FAA takes environmental look at SpaceX plan[/size]

A great blue heron feasts on a fish on Boca Chica Beach near the proposed SpaceX rocket launch site at the eastern end of Highway 4 in Cameron County. The Federal Aviation Administration is leading an environmental impact study for the permit process.
Brad Doherty/The Brownsville Herald

Ryan Henry/THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
SpaceX may be setting its sights on humankind's final frontier — the cosmos — but the proposal to build a rocket launch site in Cameron County is raising questions among environmentalists about the fate of our original frontier — the Earth.

For a proposal that presents the hope of economic progress for the region, conservationists likely could generate the biggest source of opposition, perhaps even its demise.

Or, they could play a decisive role in influencing and refining the proposal so that it addresses environmental concerns and alle-viates the potential impact to nearby wildlife refuges, bays, tidal flats, beaches and ocean ecologies.

As Space Exploration Technologies Corp. casts its eye to Boca Chica Beach as a possible location to build a launch site for its rockets, area officials are citing the overwhelming economic potential of such a partnership. However, the project is far from a certainty and, for now, some of the biggest questions remain unanswered.

Officials with the company are unable to elaborate at this time, but SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham does offer re-assurances that the company is acutely aware of the environment and the need to protect habitat.

"SpaceX is very experienced in ensuring that our sites have a minimal environmental impact," she said.

While the Federal Aviation Administration prepares an environmental impact statement on SpaceX's Boca Chica proposal, the company may not speak to the media or the public at large about the project. The FAA — which can grant or refuse SpaceX its license for a Cameron County launch site — solicited comments from various state and federal environmental agencies, nonprofits, citizens and others during a scoping period that ended May 30. Those comments now are guiding a study to examine any potential environmental impact posed by a SpaceX launch site at Boca Chica Beach.

Based on the study's findings, the FAA could clear SpaceX to continue with its licensing application, or the agency could refuse to grant the license, according to the Federal Register, which provided notice of the scoping period.

"The successful completion of the environmental review process does not guarantee that the FAA would issue launch licenses and or experimental permits to SpaceX. The project must also meet all FAA safety, risk and indemnification requirements," the register states.

FAA officials will not answer questions concerning ongoing environmental impact studies — nor do they reveal who submitted comments or even how many comments were received.

"The study is being conducted as we speak right now, so I really can't talk about it in terms of what the FAA will do in the study because we don't want to skew any of the results," said Hank Price, an FAA spokesman.

The agency will release information about public comments and the findings of the environmental impact study in December, Price said.

However, county and municipal officials already have progressed from the dreaming phase to cautious optimism and planning.

"This area is embracing the thought of having SpaceX come to Cameron County," said Sofia Benavides, a Cameron County com-missioner whose precinct includes the Boca Chica area.

More than 500 people attended the FAA's public scoping meeting in Brownsville, with 74 people speaking in favor of the project. Among the others who commented, one was opposed and another was neutral.

Many local conservationists support the spirit of the SpaceX project, if not the proposed location. Several say they are withhold-ing opinion until they learn more.

"We're very interested in the issue," said Jim Chapman of the Frontera Audubon Society. "Basically, we're in favor of the project, but we would like it to be somewhere else in Texas — because putting a rocket launch facility in an area that is surrounded by a wildlife refuge and is almost immediately adjacent to a beach where endangered sea turtles nest doesn't seem like a wise idea."

Brost Grantham, the SpaceX spokeswoman, stresses the fact that the company's existing launch sites balance operations in areas with similarly delicate environmental profiles.

"Almost all launch sites (including SpaceX's launch sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Sta-tion) are on environmental preserves or habitats," she said.

Still, local conservation groups other than Audubon are cautious, as well.

"The Sierra Club is withholding judgment on the project until its impacts are fully examined," writes Scott Nicol, conservation co-chairman for the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club. "For the time being, we are working to ensure that thorough, accurate studies are undertaken so that the general public and the politicians that are supposed to represent us can make a well-informed decision."

The club has a range of concerns about what effects construction and operations could have on the local environment.

"At the heart of the Sierra Club's concerns is the location chosen for the launch site," Nicol wrote on behalf of the club in com-ments sent to the FAA.

He explains how the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge is home to more than 1,100 plant species and some 700 animals that include 484 bird species.

"Of the original habitat that once supported this enormous diversity, less than 5 percent currently remains, so every acre that is lost is important."
 .....

Статья полностью: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/spacex-144662-plan-setting.html

2) State records don't provide complete picture[/size]

Sihil, a captive ocelot that visits the Rio Grande Valley during the annual Ocelot Conservation Festival, climbs a tree in this file photo.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Статья полностью: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/state-144668-records-spacex.html

3) Why launch near wildlife refuges?[/size]

A sign along Highway 4 leading to Boca Chica Beach marks an area belonging to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refuge area near the proposed rocket launch site in Cameron County.
Brad Doherty/The Brownsville Herald

Ryan Henry/THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD
According to SpaceX, rocket launch sites require insulation from urban development, just as wildlife habitats do.

Building in the middle of a ref-uge protects the launch site from encroaching development, which would threaten future operations. For example, during launches SpaceX must guarantee that a 1.5-mile radius around the rocket has been cleared of all unauthorized people, for safety.

That radius translates to a little more than 7 square miles, or 4,522 acres — though perhaps about a quarter to a third of that zone appears to extend into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department map.

Had all that preserved habitat not existed, SpaceX well may have been forced to buy all the sur-rounding land just to enforce a "no-man's land" around the launch pad. However, it also might be highly unfeasible, if not impossible, for a private company to acquire enough land to create a proper buffer zone clear of populated areas without also being near protected habitat.

Part of the FAA's environmental impact study looks at compatible land use, such as the effect SpaceX operations would have on sur-rounding land. For the Boca Chica proposal, the nearby land includes wildlife refuge property, the South Bay Coastal Preserve, a state highway and public beaches. Of course, the more insulated a pro-posed launch site, the better.

More southerly sites are sought so that rockets can fire closer to the equator, providing additional speed as the earth rotates and creating a slingshot effect that saves fuel.

Also, the Boca Chica site would allow rockets to blast eastward over the unpopulated waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Regardless, environmentalists are not questioning whether SpaceX's 50-acre lease would benefit from the insulation pro-vided by the refuge. What they want to know is whether the 10,680 acres of adjacent refuge property will be sufficiently isolated from SpaceX and its rockets, at least enough to preserve the integrity of the wildlife habitat.

Seen from SpaceX's perspective, the Boca Chica proposal actually allows the site to operate with a "small, eco-friendly footprint," according to a company document dated May 2.About 5 acres will be developed on the 50-acre tract, and the surrounding area will be "left untouched and, like Cape Canaveral, provides an excellent wildlife habitat," the company states.Furthermore, according to SpaceX, its Boca Chica site will be powered by solar panels and bat-teries. SpaceX founder Elon Musk also owns a solar panel installation company, Solar City, as well as electric car company Tesla Motors.

After the FAA releases its draft environmental impact statement for the proposed launch site, per-haps in December, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service will better under-stand the next steps involving its refuge mission.

"We did send comments to the FAA during the scoping period," said Jennifer Owen-White, spokes-woman for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's South Texas Refuge Complex. "We're just waiting for this draft environmental statement to learn what action is being pro-posed (by the FAA)."
......

Статья полностью: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/launch-144665-spacex-rocket.html

4) What about sea turtles?[/size]

The gloved hands of a Sea Turtle Inc. worker hold a newly hatched Kemp's ridley sea turtle moments before it was released into the Gulf of Mexico this summer on South Padre Island.
Paul Chouy / Brownsville Herald

Статья полностью: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/turtles-144666-sea-something.html

Все четыре статьи размещены вечером восьмого сентября, во всех четырех говорится об экологических аспектах размещения ракетного старта на "Берегу Коперника". Мне лично самыми интересными показались первая и третья статьи, поэтому они удостоились цитирования первых, вводных частей.

Таким образом "Проблема сусликов", как видите, стоит не только перед Байконуром.

Наш Суслик ЛУЧШЕ!

[Bell]

США, начало 21-го века. Надписи на испанском и только внизу мелким шрифтом - на английском.

По ходу у них там проблемы не только с сусликами

[X]

США, начало 21-го века. Надписи на испанском и только внизу мелким шрифтом - на английском. По ходу у них там проблемы не только с сусликами

Причём надпись на английском не является переводом.

[Valerij]

SES AND SPACEX ANNOUNCE CONTRACT FOR THREE SATELLITE LAUNCHES[/size]

12.09.2012


Hawthorne, CA / Luxembourg, September 12, 2012 – Today Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and SES (Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced an agreement to launch three additional SES satellites, on SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy rockets.

This launch agreement - concluded through SES' affiliate company SES-SL - builds on the successful SpaceX-SES partnership that began in March 2011 with the signing of the agreement for SES-8, due for launch in 2013. All four Falcon missions will support the enhancement of SES' global fleet of satellites.

Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES, stated: "SES was the first leading commercial satellite operator to place a launch contract with SpaceX and we eagerly await the launch of SES-8 in 2013. This new contract is testimony to our belief in SpaceX's product and technical abilities. It also confirms SES' priority for diversification of launch service providers and for securing timely access to space. We look forward to a long-term relationship with SpaceX."

"We're very pleased to add these three additional launches to our agreement with SES," said Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX. "It's a strong endorsement of our launch capabilities and continues an outstanding partnership between our companies."

The first SES/SpaceX mission under the contract announced today is scheduled for 2015.

For further information please contact:

Yves Feltes                                                                      
SES Media Relations
Tel. +352 710 725 311
Yves.Feltes@ses.com

Katherine Nelson
SpaceX Media Relations
Tel. +1 310 363 6447
katherine.nelson@spacex.com

Полностью здесь: http://www.ses.com/4233325/news/2012/12569243

[Valerij]

Boom![/size]

Moment of ignition for the latest SpaceX Merlin 1D engine test in McGregor, Texas.

Here's the video and photo sequence below. We had a great angle for the big bada boom.



test complex from the approach angle, with water flow to buffer sonic shock


Venting on final countdown... (with the F9 test tower in the distance on the right)


ignition




The heat scorched the grass (our view afterward from the top of that F9 test tower, looking back):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7971308188/in/photostream/

А это небольшое видео, в том числе тест двигателей:

[Valerij]

In the SpaceX Engine Test Bunker[/size]

Performing a short burst test of the Super Draco engine, which will be used by the Dragon spacecraft for multiple purposes in flight: emergency escape from launch pad to space, maneuvering in orbit, and propulsive landing on Earth... or Mars.

Short video and more photos below, from the SpaceX engine test facility in McGregor, Texas.



Walking into the bunker


Overview from Elon


View from the remote cam


Post burn glow

Оригинал: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7968391918/in/photostream/

Короткое видео, из которого взяты некоторые кадры, здесь:

[Valerij]

The Magic Dragon[/size]

Puffed to the sea.

This is the Dragon spacecraft that successfully berthed with the space station on the first try. It is in McGregor, Texas, undergoing post-flight analysis. More photos below.

(Клиепбельно)

The hatch that opened to reveal the star tracker and the target for the ISS docking arm:


The docking target for the arm. The camera aligns to the white on black target, and the arm grabs the green metal orb:


The insides... having brought cargo to the ISS, and other cargo back to Earth:


The side view, with the diagonal recessed line for the drogue parachute lines. They are set off at that angle to allow the thrusters to be in ideal position. The black cylinder is the drogue chute cannon:


The Draco thrusters

Источник: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7978144836/

[Valerij]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Test Tower Tour[/size]




We went to the top of the structure on the right

The water gravity-feeds from the water tower on the left. It's the tallest water tower in Texas, and we already know that everything's bigger in Texas.

The diagonal elevator runs up the concrete pillar in the rear:


View from the top


Walking among the five Merlin engines

We have to move Kimbal before the motors can gimbal... =)

And here's a video from earlier in the day of what it looks like when just one of these engines lights up.

Оригинал: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/7983666878/in/photostream/

[Salo]

http://www.spacenews.com/launch/120914-ses-launch-order-adds-spacex-backlog.html

Fri, 14 September, 2012
SES Launch Order Adds to SpaceX Backlog[/size]
By Peter B. de Selding

    PARIS — Satellite fleet operator SES's decision to book three more launches with startup provider SpaceX is the latest example of the commercial satellite industry's unprecedented demonstration of faith in a vehicle that, to date, has never flown to a commercial orbit.

    Hawthorne, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp.(SpaceX) long ago won over NASA as an anchor customer. After making a successful flight of its Falcon 9 rocket and berthing the Dragon capsule to the international space station earlier this year, SpaceX is now preparing to begin regular flights to the station, with the next launch scheduled to occur this fall.

    It now appears to be the turn of commercial satellite operators to line up behind SpaceX and Falcon 9.

    Luxembourg-based SES, which was the first major commercial satellite operator to book Falcon 9 — the SES-8 satellite is scheduled for launch in the second half of 2013 — announced Sept. 12 it had contracted for three more satellites to launch on Falcon 9 or the future Falcon Heavy rocket starting in 2015.

    Industry officials say the SES order brings to over $1 billion the backlog of commercial satellites now on SpaceX's manifest. While some of these companies, including SES, have easy exits to other vehicles if SpaceX does not perform, this is not true of all SpaceX customers.

    Frank McKenna, president of International Launch Services (ILS) of Reston, Va. — a veteran launch service provider and a principal SpaceX competitor — said he has calculated that SpaceX is, on average, just under 50 percent less expensive than ILS, Arianespace of France and other established launch service providers.

    For McKenna, the SpaceX phenomenon means that nearly $500 million has been withheld from the commercial launch industry — an industry not generally associated with thick profit margins — in the less than three years since SpaceX arrived on the scene.

    For SES and others, it is $500 million in savings.

    A half-dozen industry officials interviewed here during the World Satellite Business Week conference organized by Euroconsult said they have never seen the commercial market book so much business on a rocket with so little flight heritage.

    The new SES order came just weeks after a failure of the Russian Breeze M rocket carrying satellites on a Russian government-organized launch. It is the same rocket that ILS uses, and this was its second failure in a year.

    SES has signed multi-launch deals with ILS and Evry, France-based Arianespace, which operates Europe's Ariane 5 rocket.

    The decision reflects SES's belief that its business depends on having at least one more launch services provider in addition to ILS and Arianespace. SES Chief Executive Romain Bausch said the company is still evaluating Sea Launch AG of Bern, Switzerland, which uses a Russian-Ukrainian rocket launched from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean.

    Bausch told journalists Sept. 12 that SES was troubled by the most recent Proton Breeze M problem.

    "There are obviously too many failures" happening at ILS, Bausch said. "Even one failure is too many. We have a clause in our multilaunch agreement that allows us to step out of the contract if the number of failures exceeds a ceiling. We are not there yet, but we are getting closer."

    Bausch said the SpaceX deal is not an isolated decision, but an attempt by SES to help SpaceX establish itself as a third alternative in the commercial industry.

    "We are building up a third leg to diversify our sources of launchers," Bausch said. "Ariane 5 is expensive but very reliable — always a good component of your toolbox. We will not leave Proton, either."

    Bausch said SES remains confident that SpaceX will be able to launch SES-8 around July 2013. As a condition of the contract, SES said, SpaceX must have conducted a successful launch of the new Merlin 1D engine and a new 5-meter-diameter fairing that will be used for the SES flight.

    SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said here Sept. 11 during World Satellite Business Week that SpaceX has completed the design and the first model of the new fairing, with testing to start in a month or so. Qualification tests of the Merlin 1D have already begun and are scheduled to continue to the end of this year, she said.

    The qualification launch of the new ensemble is scheduled to occur by June 2013, a mission that will carry a small Canadian research satellite into polar low Earth orbit, not to the geostationary transfer orbit where SES-8 and most other telecommunications satellites are placed.

    "If there are delays we will have a backup, in this case the Ariane 5," Bausch said. "If we see a delay in Falcon 9 for SES-8, we would need to inform Arianespace six months ahead, so around November or December, saying we are moving SES-8 to Ariane. In that case we would push the Falcon launch to another satellite at a later date."[/size]

[Valerij]

Здесь на дружественном сайте нашлась карта-схема расположения испытательного центра SpaceX в McGregor, Texas:



Картинка очень кликабельна.

Источник: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=28332.msg911155#msg911155

[Salo]

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/involved-144875-thursday-offering.html

Sanchez: Texas offering $6M, Florida giving $10M[/size]
September 13, 2012 10:37 PM
ShareThis| Print Story | E-Mail Story
By EMMA PEREZ-TREVINO, The Brownsville Herald

Officials involved in discussions with SpaceX said Thursday that it's premature to put a dollar sign on the incentives package that would be offered to the company to persuade it to build a rocket-launching facility near Brownsville.

"We are still working with the local community to aggressively pursue SpaceX and (are) very much interested in trying to get them to come to Texas," Lucy Nashed, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.

This was in response to statements from Cameron County Pct. 4 Commissioner Dan Sanchez that the Brownsville Economic Development Council and the state have fallen behind Florida in incentives offered Elon Musk's SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

Sanchez said at Thursday's Commissioners Court meeting that the BEDC and the state are offering SpaceX $3 million each for a total of $6 million in efforts to attract the business to Cameron County. He said Florida is offering $10 million.

"We're behind in the race," Sanchez said at the meeting.

Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico have long been reported as candidates for the SpaceX project.

'Early stages'

SpaceX spokeswoman Katherine Nelson on Thursday stated the following: "SpaceX is continuing to look at all possibilities for a private launch facility, including sites in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. We are still in the early stages of the review process."

She said SpaceX "appreciates the efforts of, and support from, Texas local, county, regional and state elected officials and organizations."

According to some local reports, a site in Georgia is also in the mix now.

As for Brownsville, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos said the county would be working with and assisting its partners — the state, BEDC, the Texas Department of Transportation and others — in addressing SpaceX infrastructure needs in addition to financial incentives.

"There is more to an incentives package," he said. "Our package could well exceed the amount in cash that is being talked about. We are prepared to do whatever we need to do to make it happen."

'Many fronts'

He continued: "I tend to agree that the overall dollars may not be the deciding factor, but in terms of logistics, geography and location, we have the best overall package."

From the governor's office, Nashed said that negotiations are conducted "on so many fronts (other) than just cash amounts. We are still negotiating and still hopeful that they will pick Texas."

BEDC Board Chairman David Hughston said he understands that negotiations are ongoing.

"Any speculation on my part regarding the ultimate financial/in-kind package offered by the state of Texas and BEDC/Greater Brownsville Incentives Corp. would be inappropriate at this time," he said.

"I will say, however, that all indications are that state officials, including Gov. Perry, are extremely supportive of the project and would love to see the launch site in South Texas. Obviously, we want it here very much."

Hughston said the community has known for some time that Florida and Puerto Rico have been vying for the SpaceX facility.

Jobs

"Now, it appears Georgia is also in the mix. While I have heard all sorts of numbers bandied about, I have no idea what they are actually offering as financial incentives. One thing I do know is that we are committed to working with SpaceX and responding to their needs to the best of our ability," Hughston said.

Pct. 1 Commissioner Sofia C. Benavides, whose precinct covers the proposed launch site near Boca Chica Beach, said after Thursday's county meeting that her understanding also is that negotiations continue.

Benavides, as Sanchez, maintained and voiced concern that the funds being offered by BEDC and the state are linked to job creation. "SpaceX has to come here first, create the jobs, and then the money goes to them," Benavides said.

She continues to be optimistic about the project. "Our people here need it," she said.

There have been reports that Puerto Rico has offered more money in incentives than Florida.

Location

Space Florida, an independent special district of the state of Florida that arranges financial incentives, did not respond to a request for comment. The government of Puerto Rico's Secretary of Commerce Jos

[Valerij]

Интересная большая статья об Элоне Маске, его истории и стиле его работы в Bloomberg Businessweek. Кроме того говорится о некоторых планах SpaceX: "В следующем году SpaceX планирует запустить восемь ракет, а через год уже шестнадцать", "через три года SpaceX планирует отправить людей на космическую станцию за $20 млн каждый, а не $ 63млн. как сейчас".....

Elon Musk, the 21st Century Industrialist[/size]
By Ashlee Vance on September 13, 2012



Last year alone, Acura's parent company, Honda Motor (HMC), sold 200,000 hybrids. Toyota Motor (TM) sold 629,000. In nine years, Tesla has built a total of 2,450 vehicles. The auto industry may have had a rough time of late, but Tesla has had buckets of delays, quality issues, and near-death financial crises. That Musk feels no shame dismissing the efforts of vastly larger competitors would not surprise his friends and colleagues, who describe him as Steve Jobs, John D. Rockefeller, and Howard Hughes rolled into one. "He's a throwback to when people were doing less incrementalist things," says Peter Thiel, the tech investor who co-founded PayPal with Musk. "The companies he's started are executing against a vision measured not in years but in decades." Bruce Leak, a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur who once worked with Musk at a video game company, says, "He has that Bill Gates energy where his foot bounces and he's wiggling just because he's so smart." Jon Favreau, a friend and the director of the Iron Man movies, has called Musk the basis for his version of comic book hero Tony Stark, the playboy inventor who builds a flying weaponized suit.

Musk has been having a year good enough for another movie. In May, his Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, successfully launched a 227-foot-tall rocket from a platform in Cape Canaveral, docking one of its Dragon capsules with the International Space Station, orbiting 220 miles above the earth—a feat NASA called "absolutely incredible." Tesla, which went public in 2010, started shipping the all-electric Model S luxury sedan in June and will soon unveil a nationwide network of charging stations. SolarCity, where Musk is chairman of the board, is a player in the residential and commercial solar markets, with more than 28,000 customers, and is expected to go public imminently at a value of about $1.5 billion. Musk is chief executive officer of Tesla and SpaceX, and is the largest shareholder in all three companies. Following the SolarCity IPO, his net worth could be well north of $3 billion.





 .....So in 1995 he bailed out of a graduate program in applied physics at Stanford and, with Kimbal, started an Internet map and directory venture called Zip2. Four years later, they sold Zip2 to Compaq Computer for more than $300 million.

Musk took his winnings and plowed them into another startup called X.com. This was basically an online bank and would later become PayPal. Musk was the largest shareholder—and, for a time, CEO—until EBay (EBAY) acquired it for $1.5 billion in 2002. He made $180 million.

Musk poured that fortune into SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, and funded a data-center software company called Everdream, among other ventures. He palled around with Hollywood types, which is how he got to know Favreau. Musk executive-produced the satirical 2005 movie Thank You for Smoking.



Tesla almost collapsed in 2008 under the weight of delays and cost overruns, then struggled to raise a new round of venture capital while Musk was pilloried as a dilettante getting his comeuppance. Auto industry blog The Truth About Cars had a running feature called "Tesla Death Watch." Musk put his last $3 million into Tesla and began borrowing money from friends. His marriage to his college sweetheart Justine unraveled, and they both blogged their takes on the divorce settlement negotiations. "I was just getting pistol-whipped," Musk says. He sold off his McLaren F1, at the time the most expensive car in the world. "I was like, 'I'm f—ed. What am I going to do?'   " And then the rich guy's deus ex machina arrived when Dell (DELL) acquired Everdream, of which Musk was the major shareholder, for $120 million. "That money arrived in early 2009 and replenished the coffers," he says. "Thank goodness, man."



Like many of the employees at Tesla and SpaceX, Passin was hired away from an established rival—Toyota in his case. As workers assemble cars with Sweet Child O' Mine playing on a radio, Passin explains that Tesla offered him a chance to do something bold and new. "We started here with nothing, and now have a chance to show what we can do," he says.




Across town from Beverly Hills, and next door to the Tesla R&D center, is SpaceX's compound. Musk leased it after Boeing (BA) scaled back production of its 747 fuselages and left the facility. The front section of the SpaceX headquarters looks like your typical technology company office. There are rows of desks arranged in an open floor plan with Musk sitting among the crew in an extra-large corner cubicle. One hundred feet or so beyond, things get unusual. First, there's an assembly area where people in blue SpaceX lab coats surrounded by oscilloscopes and soldering irons build the company's custom circuit boards. Further in, the building opens up into a 300,000-square-foot assembly floor. Here, SpaceX makes 80 percent of the parts that go into its spacecraft.
 .....



One group of workers is assembling the protective casing that will go around a satellite for a potential customer—the governments of both Canada and Thailand are interested, Musk says. Next year, SpaceX looks to launch eight flights, and as many as 16 the following year. If it hits those goals, SpaceX would be handling the majority of the world's commercial spaceflights. (Companies like Virgin Galactic are offering trips for tourists.) In three years, SpaceX intends to send people to the space station for $20 million each, rather than the $63 million charged today. SpaceX may be Musk's most solid performer—it already turns a profit as it works through its backlog of orders.

Musk is not easy to work with. Former employees, none of whom would speak on the record, describe him as autocratic and blunt to the point of offensive. Musk had a long-running feud with Martin Eberhard, co-founder and former CEO of Tesla. Eberhard resigned under contentious circumstances and later sued Musk for libel. For a time, Eberhard kept a blog documenting Musk's alleged poor treatment of employees. Eventually, the two sides reached an agreement to stop disparaging each other publicly. "Like Jobs, Elon does not tolerate C or D players," says Jurvetson. "But I'd say he's nicer than Jobs and a bit more refined than Bill Gates." The employees who stick with him seem to love him. The SpaceX staff pulled all-nighters during the recent mission to the space station, and their factory never closes. When the Model S sedans began rolling off the factory lines, Tesla employees waved American flags and shed actual tears of joy.
 .....

Musk is also planning to develop a new kind of airplane: "Boeing just took $20 billion and 10 years to improve the efficiency of their planes by 10 percent. That's pretty lame. I have a design in mind for a vertical liftoff supersonic jet that would be a really big improvement."

After a few hours with Musk, hypersonic tubes and jets that take off like rockets start to seem imminent. But interplanetary travel? Really? Musk says he's on target to get a spacecraft to the red planet in 10 to 15 years, perhaps with him on board. "I would like to die on Mars," he says. "Just not on impact."

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-13/elon-musk-the-21st-century-industrialist

Так как статья не совсем по теме форума, выкладывать много не стал, но на страницах Bloomberg Businessweek много ссылок на статьи и видео, посвященные Элону Маску и его предприятиям.

[Salo]

Интересная большая статья об Элоне Маске, его истории и стиле его работы в Bloomberg Businessweek. Кроме того говорится о некоторых планах SpaceX: "В следующем году SpaceX планирует запустить восемь ракет, а через год уже шестнадцать", "через три года SpaceX планирует отправить людей на космическую станцию за $20 млн каждый, а не $ 63млн. как сейчас".....

Уже девять. При этом девятая должна была стать третьей в 2012, но переползла с декабря 2012 на январь 2013. :wink:
Думаю в 2014 запустят двадцать.
А астронавтов будут возить по цене влажных салфеток?

[Valerij]

Уже девять. При этом девятая должна была стать третьей в 2012, но переползла с декабря 2012 на январь 2013. :wink:
Думаю в 2014 запустят двадцать.
А астронавтов будут возить по цене влажных салфеток?

Я не запускаю ракеты, я только цитирую статью. К цитированию претензии есть?    И сказать, сколько ракет в год будет запускать Маск в тот или иной год не могу. Но Маск готовится иметь минимум три пусковых комплекса, каждый с проектной мощностью по двенадцать пусков в год......

З.Ы.
Salo, а вы готовы покупать влажные салфетки по двести тысяч баксов? В конечном счете Маск говорит о такой цене полета....