THE FOURTH FALCON ROCKET When Musk started SpaceX in 2002 he planned to buy a booster rocket from the Russian space program This didn’t work out so Musk and his team used NASA technology to build their own They named it the Falcon rocket Their first three rocket launches failed SpaceX was losing millions of dollars Musk launched a fourth rocket in September 2008 It became the first privately built rocket to enter Earth orbit During the same year SpaceX got a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA to carry supplies to and from the International Space Station Musk explained his project to the crowd He is working on building rockets that can take people to Mars Musk believes having a second planet for human life is important He thinks that in the future Earth will experience an extinction event that will kill all humans MAKING A HOME ON MARS Musk has a plan to make it less costly to send people into space He is working to make rockets reusable Musk has used technology from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA to create 6
SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California rockets NASA is the US space agency It uses rockets that are not reusable NASA has asked the government for money to build things such as reusable rockets but has been turned down 7
Mars is the fourth closest planet to the sun Earth is the third closest SpaceX is privately owned It is not controlled by the government SpaceX plans to build a 400-foot 122-m tall rocket passenger spaceships and refueling tankers Musk hopes to send people to Mars in the 2020s Musk believes Mars is the best planet to colonize It’s not too close to the sun and not too far from Earth 8
LANDING A REUSABLE ROCKET The first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is designed to land safely on Earth after flying into space It can then be refueled and reused Before SpaceX most rockets either fell into the ocean or continued into space What is one advantage to Musk's plan for reusable rockets 9 After liftoff the second stage separates from the rocket The second stage boosts the cargo capsule into orbit toward the International Space Station The first stage slows down as it descends toward the ground The Falcon 9 rocket launches The first stage lands on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean
