Inside a SpaceX fairing, as it separates and implements a batch of Starlink satellites earlier this year. The satellite stack is visible in the center. Image: SpaceX / YouTube
At the end of the year, astronaut launch service provider and equipment manufacturer Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) managed to further reduce the costs of launching payloads into low, medium and polar Earth orbits. While this year’s focus was the historic manned SpaceX flight to the International Space Station (ISS), the rapid deployment of the Starlink constellation of Internet satellites and tests of its next-generation Starship launch platform, the company’s repeated reuse of the critical component. of the rocket went largely unnoticed.
This so-called payload “fairing” component was a crucial factor in the launch costs that SpaceX and its customers had to bear every time a non-Dragon payload was launched last year. In 2020, as you will see below, SpaceX has managed to significantly reduce this cost as well – meeting the goal of CEO Elon Musk to reduce the cost of rocket launches.
SpaceX is expanding the reuse of the fairing in 2020 to reduce launch costs
During the launch of a rocket, a fairing is located at the very top of the launch vehicle as the rocket accelerates through the Earth’s atmosphere. The purpose of this component is to protect the payload of the rocket from the aerodynamic and atmospheric forces that the vehicle, which often becomes supersonic during flight, encounters during its ascent.
The main achievement of SpaceX in the industry was the development of a reusable rocket from the first stage, which significantly reduces the cost of launches and facilitates access to space. Most of the cost savings from reusing the first stage for a rocket (the part that separates once the vehicle escapes from the atmosphere) comes from reusing the engine – these components are not only expensive, but also very complex to manufacture.
Once SpaceX discovered the landing issues of its first Falcon 9 booster stage, the company was left with the second largest launch cost engine, also known as the second stage and payload fairing.
In an interview with AviationWeek in May, Musk shared the launch costs of the Falcon 9 and their main drivers. According to him, once the first stage of the Falcon 9 has been reused, the marginal cost (the cost of a subsequent launch) for the rocket drops to 15 million dollars. This cost covers areas such as a new stage (which costs about $ 10 million) and recovery and recovery costs of the fairing, fuel and renovation costs for the rest.
Half of the fairing recovered by SpaceX in May 2019 after the launch of the Starlink beta satellites. Elon Musk / Twitter
While they appear to be simple on the surface, a payload hull itself comes with a number of sensors, thrusters, a heat shield and a parachute among other components. All of this naturally raises the cost of using new ones every time a rocket is launched. A fairing, consisting of two halves, costs $ 6 million for the production unveiled by Musk at a press conference in 2017, after the launch of SES SA’s SES-10 communications satellite.
Assuming its renovation requires approximately $ 1.5 million, it allows us to estimate SpaceX’s cost savings this year. In 2020, the company launched 26 missions, five of which were Crew and Cargo Dragon missions that did not use any fairings. Of the rest, fourteen were Starlink releases.
In 2020, SpaceX reused seven complete sets of fairings for a third of the launches that used the components. Ramish Zafar / Wccftech
Of course, today’s short analysis comes with its own set of warnings. Because the data has been compiled since the release of the SpaceX live streams, it is assumed that not mentioning reuse involves a new set. In addition, Musk’s estimate of $ 6 million is from 2017 and it is also assumed that any manufacturing efficiency that SpaceX has witnessed since then does not reduce costs.
The data compilation shows that this year SpaceX reused seven complete sets of fairings, for cost savings that could reach 42 million dollars. These savings could be lower, such as $ 35 million, if production efficiency were able to reduce fairing costs to $ 5 million.
Crucially, it is important to note that most of these cost savings were for SpaceX itself. With the exception of the Sirius XM SXM-7 satellite communications mission, which reused half of the fairing, all other resulting fairings were intended for Starlink missions, as it offers SpaceX a much-needed financial margin in the early stages of the constellation.
Each half of the fairing has its own propellers that help orient it to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. These thrusters ensure that the outside of the component is facing the ground as it re-enters, which protects the avionics and other sensitive components.