Space X Ten Things

Written by Jeffrey Kluger / Illustrations by Bronson Stamp SpaceX has been putting wins on the board ever since the company—founded by serial entrepreneur Elon Musk—became the first privately funded group to put a payload in Earth orbit, in 2008. Since then,the company has continued to impress, launching unmanned cargo vehicles to the International Space Station (ISS) and winning a contract from NASA to fly astronauts as well, as early as 2017. There have been setbacks—most disastrously last June when a cargo rocket bound for the ISS exploded en route, costing the crew much-needed supplies and shaking confidence in the company as a whole. On December 21, however, Musk bounced back, launching a payload of satellites to orbit and then recovering the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, which landed upright, settling itself down under the power of its own engines, just six miles from the Cape Canaveral launch pad. Recoverable, reusable rocket stages that touch down on dry land have been talked about for decades as a way to keep costs down and speed turnaround times, but no one had been able to do it—until now. Here are 10 other things you need to know about the SpaceX.   1. Who is Elon Musk and why is he building rockets? Musk (b. 1971) is a South African-born entrepreneur with degrees in business and physics from the University of Pennsylvania—and he’s launching rockets because he just kind of decided to. That’s the short ans...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Elon Musk space SpaceX Source Type: news