Space Exploration Technologies

Corporation

WESAMHELOU
PRATEEK JAIN
NISHY MATHEW
ANDREW ROSS
SpaceX Making History
 Introduction

 Commercial orbital transportation services

 Advanced rockets and spacecraft

 Founder: Elon Musk

 PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder

 Invested $100 million USD of his own money in the company,

SpaceX, in 2002
 SpaceX today is valued around $1.3 billion USD and after
2013 when they send off COST2+ the company is estimated to
be worth $2.4 billion USD
 2/3 of the company owned by Elon Musk
 Introduction cont.

 Space Exploration Technologies Corporation is also called SpaceX:

 Founded in 2002 byElon Musk
 Employees : 1800
 Vice President: Ken Bowesox
 Headquartered in Hawthorne California
 Launch facilities at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California
 a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas; and offices in Washington, DC.
 Inventions:Drangon Space craft
 Contracts: NASA, American government, International agencies
and goverments
 Future projects: Falcon Heavy system, NASA‘s robotic Mars
mission in 2018,
 Introduction cont.

• Mission:
 Develop space transportations, with the ultimate goal of making it
possible for humans to live on other planets.
• Future vision:
 Keep the technological advances, innovative ideas, and
groundbreaking research happening.
 To send humans to Mars within 10 to 20 years.
 Creating reusable aircraft which has never been attempted
successfully in the past.
 Company Goals

 He was trying to understand why rockets were so expensive

and wanted to make spaceflight routine and affordable
 His goal is to ―revolutionize space transportation and
ultimately make it possible for people to live on other planets‖
 ― Ultimately, our goal is to reduce costs by over a factor of ten,
saving billions of tax dollars and helping to launch a new age
of discovery,‖
 Manifest of over 40 launches to deliver commercial satellites
to orbit.
 Announced its plans for Falcon Heavy, the most powerful
rocket in the world
 Current endeavors involve ‗reusable rocket‘ concept
 Falcon
 Dragon
 Customers/Market

 Falcon family launch vehicles

 Medium and heavy lift launch capabilities

 Any inclination and altitude (low Earth orbit to

geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions)
 $4 billion in contracts and more than 40 launches on
its manifest
 Over 60% commercial
 Patents and IPRs

 They DO NOT file patents, Musk says, because ―we

try not to provide a recipe by which China can copy
us and we find our inventions coming right back at
us.‖
 But he talks freely about SpaceX‘s approach to rocket
design, which stems from one core principle:
Simplicity enables both reliability and low cost.
Think of cars, Musk says. ―Is a Ferrari more reliable
than a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic?‖
 Financial Situation

 First 10 years of operation

 $1 billion in funding
 Private equity: 20%
 Elon Musk: 10%
 Investors: 10%
 Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

 Long-term launch and development contracts: 50%

 40+ contracts for launch missions

 Down payments at signing
 Progress payments
 Pricing

 What sets SpaceX apart?

 Prices

 Falcon Heavy expectations

 ―Our performance will increase and our prices will
decline over time,‖ he writes on SpaceX‘s Web site,
―as is the case with every other technology.‖
 Marketing Plan/Competition

 Small market with HIGH risk HIGH reward

 Relies completely upon past performance

 First-mover market advantage/Economies of Scale?

 COTS program

 Commercial launches

 ―Red Dragon‖ Mars mission concept?

 Orbital Sciences, Andrews Space, Boeing, Planet

Space, SpaceHab, RocketplaneKistler, Venturer
Aerospace, SpaceDev, t/Space, Constellation
Services International, Lockheed Martin
 IPO?

 The decision to take SpaceX public depends on

having a ―highly predictable revenue stream,‖ Musk
said at the company‘s headquarters in Hawthorne,
California.

 ―SpaceX doesn‘t absolutely need to go public, so it‘s

best to delay going public until we have a steady
stream of launches occurring,‖ he said. Late 2013 is
the most likely timing, he said.
 Organization Structure

 Silicon Valley tech firm

 Workforce at SpaceX- average age is around 30
 Flat organizational structure
 Unorthodox approaches
 Corporate structure
 Manufacturing responsibility is organized
 Atmosphere of collaboration
 Business Model

 Rewritten the rules by adopting a new business model

and cutting-edge technologies
 Simplicity, low cost, and reliability go hand in hand.
 Speed in decision making and delivery
 Majority of manufacturing in-house
 Simple, proven designs with a primary focus on reliability
 Higher product quality - tight collaboration between
design and manufacturing
 NASA made its expertise and specialized facilities
available to SpaceX
 Innovation

 First commercial company to recover a spacecraft

returning from orbit
 True engine out reliability
 World's first fully reusable launch vehicles.
 Replace expensive government vehicles as a way into
orbit.
 Reusable Dragon cargo capsule is set to become the
first private spacecraft to visit the International Space
Station.
 Products

 The Falcon Launch Vehicle Family provides

breakthrough advances in reliability, cost, flight
environment and time to launch.
 Falcon 1 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket
grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle
 Falcon 9- wider diameter
 Falcon Heavy- heavy lift launch vehicle
 Dragon is a free-flying, reusable spacecraft
 Engine Technology

 Merlin 1-D engine, Kestrel engine- clean sheet design,

both been developed from scratch
 PICA heat shields
 Friction Washer Technology
 Advanced composite materials to enhance the
performance of its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule
 Developed a launch pad release system
 Space X

GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS
 Why did NASA exit from this?

 NASA conducted an internal study.

 Private firms can develop and operate

more efficiently and affordably than a
government bureaucracy.

 Without COTS agency cannot achieve

objectives of the Vision for Space
Exploration.
 Incentives by NASA to promote

 In 2006 NASA announced Commercial Orbital

Transportation Services (COTS) program

 First round consisted of $500 Million of funding by

NASA.
 SpaceX and RocketplaneKistler (RpK) won Phase I

 June 18, 2007, NASA signed separate non-

reimbursable Space Act Agreements with four firms
 No financial support, only information
 Incentives by NASA to promote

 In Dec 2008, SpaceX contracted for resupply

services for the ISS.
 12 missions for SpaceX

 While NASA spends 500 million on one flight,

SpaceX marks it at $54 million.
 How will they make money?

 Betting on NASA giving enough business in the next

10 years.

 Other commercial customers able to use these

rockets

 SpaceX has billion dollars of private contracts with

satellite operators to launch their satellites.
 Challenges for Space X

 Seven launches since its inception, three of which

were catastrophic failures

 Can they transform from boutique space

development firm into essentially a production
house?

 Heavily dependent on NASA contracts and will

continue to be for many, many years.
 Challenges for Space X

 Government oversight and regulations

 Company is banking on combination of increased

demand and cost avoidance to under-price
competitors.

 Company relies on vertical integration — pulling

parts and component production in-house
 Management Lessons

 ―Numbers will never compensate for talent in

getting the right answer. It will tend to slow
down progress, and will make the task
incredibly expensive.‖ – Musk

 ―Rocket engineering is not like ditch digging‖

– Musk
 Need one person to do it right, rather than 100.

 Make workplace enjoyable

 Management Lessons

 Triple sign-off for all major critical operations

 Lessons from SpaceX applied on Tesla

 Only all aluminum car in North America
Thank You!

QUESTIONS?