Adopting advanced composite materials For the better part of five decades, commercial access to space has been limited by the high cost of flight operations. However, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has rewritten the rules of the game by adopting a new business model and cutting-edge technologies to enhance reliability and reduce the cost of space access.
SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy (currently under development) will be the world’s most powerful rocket, with more than twice the payload-to-orbit capacity of the space shuttle, but at only one-third the cost. It is expected to be the first rocket to break the US$1,000/lb-to-orbit barrier, less than a tenth as much as the NASA space shuttle.