Over the weekend; SpaceX made history, by becoming the first private company to successfully ferry astronauts to the ISS during the Crew Demo-2 mission; while simultaneously returning human spaceflight to the United States. The two NASA astronauts; Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley; successfully made it to the ISS, via SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket and their modern day spacecraft named; Dragon Endeavor.

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How was SpaceX able to do it?

1) Falcon 9

The Falcon 9 is SpaceX’s most appreciated product; it was designed from scratch in Hawthorne California; and is the first orbital class rocket capable of reflight. The rocket has 9 Merlin Engines for takeoff and 1 for the second stage; Falcon 9 has had over 83 launches; 44 landings; and 31 reflown rockets. The reusability of Falcon 9 allows SpaceX to reuse expensive parts, and allows engineers to study the rockets after launch; learning from any possible damage that may have occurred; which helps with improving the rockets reliability and reusability. The reliability and reusability of Falcon 9 made Crew Demo-2 possible, and will continue to help SpaceX maintain its price competitiveness; which will help the company achieve many of its other ambitious goals.

2) Dragon Endeavor

Dragon Endeavor is the spacecraft SpaceX uses to send humans and cargo into space; Dragon Endeavor has already sent cargo to the ISS 21 times; this was the first mission it carried astronauts instead of cargo. Dragon Endeavor is mostly driven autonomously; and can fit up to 7 passengers; for its first human space flight; Dragon Endeavor only held 2 passengers. Falcon 9 and Dragon Endevour have proved their reliability to astronauts and their are now many other astronauts ready for their turn to experience this unique spacecraft.

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3) Working with NASA and meeting guidelines

The last reason for how SpaceX was able to pull this off in my eyes was its alliance with NASA. SpaceX has been working side by side with NASA for almost the last decade; since NASA discontinued the Space Shuttle. NASA set the guidelines of the Crew Demo-2 mission; and was willing to fund any private company that met their high standards of safety and reliability. SpaceX was the the only company to meet those guidelines; The engineering geniuses of NASA and SpaceX were laser focused on getting Bob and Doug to the ISS safely; and I believe because of this alliance; the odds of success became even higher.

Conclusion

Since SpaceX was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk; the company has seen its fair share of difficulties; from the first 3 Falcon 9 rockets blowing up and nearly bankrupting the company; to winning a multi-billion dollar contract with NASA to re-supply the ISS right before another close call with bankruptcy. From the Russians telling Elon Musk to get lost when he was seeking prices for rockets; Elon & everyone at SpaceX never gave up. SpaceX’s goal since the beginning has been to help humans become a multi-planetary species; SpaceX and NASA hope this launch will inspire the next generation to dream of space travel as it becomes even more of a reality. The success of this mission was said to have been due to the effort of more than 100,000 people. During a global pandemic; SpaceX proceeded; lifting up the spirits of not only Americans; but all humans; despite hard and uncertain times; SpaceX is now ready to help humanity travel among the stars.

“You want to wake up in the morning and think the future is going to be great – and that’s what being a spacefaring civilization is all about. It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars.”

-Elon Musk

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