SpaceX: Explosive Innovation
When SpaceX attempted to launch its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on June 28th, 2015, the mission failed a little over two minutes into flight and marked the third attempt in a row that failed to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). An Orbital Sciences resupply mission failed in October and then a Russian resupply mission failed in May.
Fighting failure by owning it all
What sets Elon Musk’s SpaceX apart from the other rocket companies is that almost everything is built in-house. This aspect of SpaceX’s business model was formed by necessity and is chronicled in the Musk biography, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future. Their need to compete with an entrenched industry by dramatically lowering costs forced Musk’s team to radically innovate every aspect of rocket systems technology. And this also gives them a leg up on getting down to the root cause of this failure.
“We’re certainly in an extraordinary position to know what happened, to find what happened, to fix what happened and get back to flight given the fact that the majority of this launch vehicle and all its components are ours so we don’t have to go through legal and contract negotiations and discussions to get data on any component. We own it all. I’m sure we’ll find it rapidly and we’ll get back to flight as soon as we safely and reliably can.” – Gwynne Shotwell, President & COO, SpaceX
Building the future
Unlike the two previous failures by Orbital Sciences and Russia, the Falcon 9 explosion was not a typical launch. This was SpaceX’s third attempt at being the first in human history to build a working reusable rocket. Rockets are currently only used once and if SpaceX can deliver on this breakthrough it will be able to cut costs further and leave competitors in their stardust.
Integrated innovation
With the recent Falcon 9 explosion, SpaceX must once again attempt to learn from its failure and make history; however, Musk’s team is uniquely positioned to do just that. When it comes to the Falcon 9 tech, SpaceX owns it all. Owning all the components allows engineers to build in testing mechanisms at every stage. SpaceX doesn’t only innovate individual parts, it innovates the testing and data gathering mechanisms of those parts, integrating innovation into all aspects of the system.
Growth from failure
SpaceX has grown impressively over the past few years but in many ways it still operates like a startup. Everyone operates in a huge warehouse turned shared workspace with white paint covering the interior. Failure is an accepted part of life at SpaceX. But only to a degree. If an unexpected roadblock comes up or something fails then there better be a plan to persevere or to correct the failure. Anything less is not tolerated. This is a core tenant of startup success and what yields breakthrough innovations.
Fourth time’s the charm
It wasn’t until SpaceX’s fourth launch that it successfully put a rocket into earth orbit to resupply the ISS. Continuing on this trajectory, SpaceX has become the first company to successfully launch a rocket into orbit AND execute a controlled landing, allowing the rocket to be reused on future missions. Next stop: Dragon Capsule carrying human cargo. Eventually: Mars.