Reusable Spacecraft Key For Human Space Exploration

By Janie Amaya

SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk addressed a small audience at the National Press Club Thursday to offer his expertise on the future of human space flight exploration. 

In the attempt to make the human race a multi-planetary species, Musk said SpaceX has created some of the world’s most reliable and economical launch vehicles and spacecraft. Some, including the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon, have gained high global recognition for abilities such as carrying payloads to space at 30-50 percent of the cost of its competitors.

“The pivotal breakthrough that’s necessary, that some company has to come up with to make life multi-planetary, is a fully and rapidly reusable forward-class rocket,” Musk said. The Dragon, he said, fits this description.

The Dragon is SpaceX’s fully reusable spacecraft and is set to launch to the International Space Station on November 3. During that mission the company will be monitoring the reusability for future launches. However, Musk said the company is aware of the various engineering problems, such as spacecraft weight accuracy and engine efficiency. 

“If your rocket ends up being just a little bit heavier, you get nothing to orbit,” he said. However, he said, this is a risk the company is willing to take to create for the future of human space flight. 

“SpaceX is going to try to do it. We could fail; I’m not saying we have certain success here but we are gonna try to do it,” Musk said.  

Musk said SpaceX has been working hard in creating a reusable spacecraft and said it is the key to dramatic cost savings enabling innovative U.S. space exploration programs.   

Elon Musk is also the co-founder of Paypal, which he sold to Ebay in 2002 for $1.5 billion which allowed him to start SpaceX.