Space Exploration Technologies, also known as SpaceX, wants to start launching Falcon 9 rockets every two to three weeks, the company says on Monday. It would be the fastest rate of rocket launches since it started in 2010. It plans to schedule a new launch once a new launch pad is ready in Florida next week.
The ambitious plan is hatched only five months after a company's rocket exploded while on the launch pad at the original launch site in Florida. The space company, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has only successfully launched only a single rocket in mid-January. The rocket nailed the landing, and with that success under its belt, confidence has returned to the company, telling the world that it will soon be launching rockets twice or thrice a week from now on.
According to the CNET, Reuters have pointed out that before the $200 million rocket explosion in September, SpaceX was already close to launching rockets that quickly. Eight successful launches are recorded last year, and you can read about each one in Wikipedia. The new pad is scheduled to be ready next week, and this will be closely followed by the consecutive rocket launches.
The new launch pad is at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after the original one at nearby Cape Canaveral was destroyed in the September blast. The company launched its latest successful rocket in California's Vandenburg Air Force Base last month. After the announcement, the company will be busy as it starts to work on its promise.
The company is also improving the rocket's engines to resolve potential safety concerns, the Fortune reports. The design of the Falcon 9's turbopump will be changed to remedy the cracks that have worried NASA and the U.S. Air Force. SpaceX says the new turbopumps will be put up before the first unmanned test flights of the commercial space taxi commences in November.
