Hello Friends, hope you all are doing great
and we are here again with some very interesting
updates for you.
At first we will discuss the latest result
of the SpaceX Raptor engine test, then will
share some details about SpaceX's overall
valuation and at last we discuss about the
net worth increase for SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
So let's get into the details.
On Monday, Elon Musk has revealed that SpaceX
has broken a global record during a recent
Raptor engine test ensuring the crucial SpaceX
Starship component meets years-old performance
targets.
The SpaceX Raptor engine is used to power
the upcoming SpaceX Starship and it has been
reaching new levels of power during its development.
The engine reached 330 bar of chamber pressure
without exploding.
As per NASA, rocket engines are systems having
combustion chambers where fuel gets ignited
to produce high temperature and high pressure
to exhaust gas which comes out through a nozzle
to produce thrust.
The entire system is based on Newton's third
law of aerodynamics, i.e.
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction."
so the thrust is just the reaction of pressure
creates in the chamber.
The whole announcement was done in an unexpected
way as SpaceX CEO released some photos of
the raptor test with all the relevant graph
results displaying the chamber pressure achieved
by the Raptor to confirm SpaceX has met the
record breaking level.
As per SpaceX CEO the unspecified Raptor engine,
most probably SN39 has reached the main combustion
chamber pressure of approximately 330 bar
during controlled burn and not only that it
remained intact after shutdown.
The chamber pressure has been measured in
bars as per Mask's post and as per these units,
the ambient pressure at sea level is 1.01325
bar.
The other frequently used measure is pounds
per square inch, or psi, where that same measurement
would show as 4786.25 psi.
The Raptor engine's chamber pressure has crossed
what was achieved by Merlin 1D by a huge margin,
as per the NASA document Merlin 1D has a pressure
of 1,410 psi or 97 bar.
The new record set by SpaceX Raptor engine
beats the previous success back in February
2019, when it reached 269 bar.
SpaceX claimed that Raptor Engine would provide
half a million pounds of force around 225
tons.
On May 2020, as per Musk's statement the SpaceX
super heavy booster used to lift the SpaceX
Starship away using 31 engines.
According to SpaceX website Super Heavy booster
ultimately offers 16 million pound of thrust.
As the Raptor's power levels are already found
spectacular its exact strength would be best
measured during subsequent hop tests.
The SpaceX starship looks approx.
400 feet tall when paired with the super heavy
boosters.
The new achievement by SpaceX was announced
roughly after 18 months Elon Musk revealed
that SpaceX had beaten RD 270 full flow staged
combustion having a higher chamber pressure,
approximately 255 bar.
After few days the same SpaceX Raptor Engine
got passed Russian RD 180's which is capable
to produce chamber pressure of 258 bar.
Last year around July and August the Raptor
engine took off twice on Starhopper reaching
peak at approximately 20 meter and 150 meter
hop which almost destroyed the engine itself
just after landing.
After one year Raptor SN27 launched on SpaceX
Starship SN5 on the same 150m trajectory.
This time the performance was perfect without
showing any stutter or flare.
SpaceX is known for continuous refinement
of their prototypes to come out with a more
improved product after each trial and so SN27
never met the fate of SN6.
If the engine can maintain the chamber pressure
of 330 bar without damaging itself, the milestone
can indicate that SpaceX has already boosted
Raptor’s maximum thrust from ~200 metric
tons to ~225 metric tons (440,000-500,000
lbf) for Starship and Super Heavy, that 10%
increment in thrust can turn out to a 5-10%
increase in payload to orbit per launch.
To reach orbit still there are few things
to look at.
SpaceX will need to expand Raptor production
quiet heavily approximately 31 engines per
booster to ensure that the engine can reliably
operate for 3 to 5+ minutes and reignite itself
multiple times during the flight.
SpaceX would need the engine to burn for 5-10
minutes continuously to reach the orbit for
Starship.
SpaceX is also eyeing to finish a custom vacuum-optimized
version of the engine for efficient orbital
Starship flights.
SpaceX Starship SN8 will likely be the first
prototype to fly with three Raptor engines.
It will need the functionality to stop and
start those engines during the flight to perform
full-fidelity 20 km (~12.5 mi) launch and
landing tests.
That's all for the SpaceX Raptor Engine today,
let’s get into some other update.
According to the data from CB Insights, a
capital analysis company, SpaceX is now at
third position in the list of $1 billion companies
after two Chinese technical giants - rideshare
company Didi Chuxing and TikTok parent company
ByteDance.
Spacex has sold the bulk of its planned $2.07
billion offering to investors starting Aug.
4, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.
Just to give a heads up that SpaceX plans
to sell another $165 million in equity and
preferred stock.
In the latest round of funding, 75 of the
investors participated, which will value the
company at $46 billion.
In a fertile period when Stock market is on
a record high SpaceX fundraising comes both
for Tesla sister company and capital markets
more broadly.
SpaceX has delivered 58 Starlink satellites
to orbit along with three SkySat satellites
for Planet Labs Inc recent.
Tuesday’s filing happened on the same day
when SpaceX broke a record sixth flight for
one of its Falcon 9 rocket boosters.
SpaceX is well positioned to seek enough resources
from investors as they made significant impact
launching successful of high-profile successes
it has recorded recently.
The round was reportedly oversubscribed, though
there isn’t yet much information available
about who participated in the round.
SpaceX has also made impressive progress on
its Starlink spacecraft program, having successful
short test flights of the prototype early
this month.
SpaceX has already won multiple multi-year
contracts from NASA and the U.S. government
for launch services this year.
The existing process is very much capitalistic
in nature which can explain the size of the
round.
Now let’s discuss about money.
Elon Musk has now become the world’s fourth
richest person, after a hike in the share
price of the Tesla, the car company he co-founded
and owning 21% of the shares increased his
wealth by more than $13.3bn or £10bn in just
two days of trading.
He has overtaken France’s richest person,
the luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman
of Louis Vuitton as he worth more than $90bn.
In May Musk himself tweeted saying that the
share price was too high.
Here are list of 10 richest people in the
world as of now -
Jeff Bezos – Amazon $195bn
Bill Gates – Microsoft $121bn
Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook $99.4bn
Elon Musk – Tesla $90.3bn
Bernard Arnault – LVMH $83.7bn
Mukesh Ambani – Reliance Industries $80bn
Warren Buffett – Berkshire Hathaway $79bn
Steve Balmer – Microsoft $76.1bn
Larry Page – Alphabet $74.2bn
Sergey Brin – Alphabet $71.9bn
But Facebook’s co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg,
and Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, Amazon’s
owner, Jeff Bezos are well ahead of SpaceX
CEO.
Jeff Bezos is having an estimated net wealth
of $195bn, according to the Bloomberg billionaires
index.
Instead of getting involved into a series
of controversial tweets Musk managed to reach
this position.
He was sued unsuccessfully for $190m for making
derogatory tweets about a British caver who
helped to rescue a football team trapped in
a flooded cave in Thailand.
In 2018 Tesla and Musk were fined for $20m
by the US Securities and Exchange Commission
as Musk tweeted plans to take the firm private,
driving up the share price.
But Musk being Musk has also been an outspoken
critic of the lockdown policies during this
Covid-19 crisis.
The founder of Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, also
CEO of online retailer Amazon is now the wealthiest
person.
He saw his wealth rise by $7.2 billion (£5.43
billion) in a single day, because he owns
just over 11 percent of the company.
As part of huge settlement divorce MacKenzie
Scott received a quarter of Bezos' Amazon
stake in Amazon which makes her the third
richest woman in the world, with a fortune
of $62.7 billion.
Woah.. that's quiet a lot of money isn’t
it?
That’s it for today my friends.
Will come back with more updates as soon as
we can.
Stay safe, take care.
