SpaceX: Revolutionizing the Space Industry
[Music] It's common to hear that space is the final frontier, to go where no man has gone before. But in actuality, it's the beginning of the future. The knowledge we gained about the universe increases day by day, but our means of accessing it is a slow and sometimes even painful journey.
Since the 1970s, the American spaceflight industry has been moving in the wrong direction. From being able to send humans to the moon atop a Saturn 5 rocket to then only being able to send astronauts to the ISS aboard the Space Shuttle - now having nothing at all. Space has been a place only explored by the biggest governments on the planet, but now the tides are shifting. If the most powerful countries on Earth aren't willing to put effort, do others have to step up?
The engineering feats from the 20th century had put us in a position to accomplish all of our goals, but yet the entire reason we began has been forgotten. The reasons these rockets were built, the places we've went, the things we've achieved - it's all just been swept under the rug until now. The private spaceflight industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. The biggest problems with space travel are being tackled by some of the smartest and richest people on this planet, and it's not a coincidence. Space travel is one of, if not the most important issues today. It's not a cultural issue, it's not a political issue, it's a matter of evolution. We've always been explorers, moving from sea to land, to moving across entire continents, traversing oceans, covering every single inch of our planet, and now it's time to go even further.
[Music] As of 2019, only four entities have put a space capsule in orbit and successfully returned it back to Earth: the United States, Russia, China, and SpaceX. That's it. Elon Musk took a sum of 100 million dollars, and in 2002 Space Exploration Technologies, or better known as SpaceX, was born. They're in a league of their own, launching some of the most powerful spacecraft since the Apollo era. SpaceX is competing with some of the most powerful forces in the entire world. Their goal is simple: to enable humans to live on other planets, and as of right now, the destination is looking like Mars.
SpaceX has revolutionized the commercial spaceflight industry and are the ones reigniting the public's interest in space travel. But the company hasn't always had the reputation it does now. The Falcon 1 rocket, with SpaceX's first and almost last venture in commercial spaceflight, is perhaps the most important one of them all. From 2006 to 2009, Falcon 1 attempted five flights, but it wasn't off to the best start.
[Music] When you had that third failure in a row, did you think, "I need to pack this?" "Why not? I don't ever give up. I mean, I'd have to be dead or incapacitated." But on September 28th, 2008, things went a little differently. Falcon 1 carried a 165 kilograms simulated payload into orbit successfully for the first time. Privately built liquid fuel booster reached orbit. The Falcon 1 rocket is the first in the family of Falcon rockets developed solely by SpaceX. It stands 21 metres high and was capable of carrying over 500 kilograms of payload to low Earth orbit. For its time, this was the most important event in spaceflight history. 500 kilograms isn't much, but this was the start of everything. It created the roadmap necessary towards a future of cheaper and more reliable space travel.
That day, that first successful flight, was what single-handedly saved SpaceX from extinction. After the first three failed attempts, SpaceX was on life support. The 100 million dollars that was put into SpaceX was all gone. If this fourth flight hadn't succeeded, SpaceX most likely would have gone under, and all the things you're seeing them do today would have never happened. I messed up the first three launches; the first three launches failed. Unfortunately, the fourth launch, which was the last money that we had, we thought if that fourth launch worked, or it would have been it for SpaceX. Simply putting something in orbit is one of the hardest tasks there is, and all these failures show...