FYI,

Go to article to see photos of the SpaceX facility.

"Space 2.X: The Private Rocket Race Takes Off"
Wired Magazine
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/gallery_spacex

: Building a successful startup in Silicon Valley is hard, but it's
: not rocket science. Unless you're SpaceX.

: Eschewing the traditional startup trappings of two college grads
: eating ramen, watching Adult Swim and coding until the wee hours of
: the night, SpaceX instead employs hundreds of brainiacs and builds
: its rockets in a massive hangar that once housed a 747 fuselage
: factory.

: Started in 2002 by PayPal founder Elon Musk, SpaceX (short for
: Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) brings a startup
: mentality to launching rockets into orbit, which until recently was
: almost exclusively government turf. The hope is that minimal
: bureaucracy, innovation and in-house manufacturing and testing can
: be used to put payloads into space at roughly one-tenth the cost of
: traditional methods.

: If the company's newest rocket, the Falcon 9, successfully
: completes its two scheduled launches this year, it will rendezvous
: with the International Space Station in 2010. After that, it will
: officially begin its mission as NASA's Commercial Orbital
: Transportation Services platform, replacing the space shuttle as
: the method for transporting cargo and crew to the ISS.

: SpaceX launched its first rocket, the Falcon 1, last September,
: placing a dummy payload into orbit. Space enthusiasts are holding
: their breath to see how Falcon 9 performs.

: Here's a behind-the-scenes look at SpaceX's facility. This is how
: the private sector builds a rocket capable of space travel.

: Looking less like a lab full of rocket scientists and more like
: Google, SpaceX foregoes offices and private meeting rooms. Instead
: the company opts for an open floor plan and glass-paneled
: conference rooms. Don't be fooled, those are rocket scientists.

: Later this year, SpaceX will launch its much larger Falcon 9
: rocket. If all goes well, the craft will make several orbits around
: the Earth before splashing down off the California coast. If the
: mission is a success, a commercial payload will be launched before
: the end of 2009.

: The Falcon 9's capsule, Dragon, is designed to carry cargo and
: astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA.

: SpaceX uses a high-tech, strong and lightweight aluminum-lithium
: alloy with a rigid internal structure in the construction of its
: Falcon 1 rocket. The lighter the rocket, the heavier the payload
: can be.

: An extremely accurate laser survey device, left, is used to ensure
: that rocket parts fall within SpaceX's tight tolerances.

: High-pressure, high-temperature manifolds and final rocket cones
: wait for assembly into rocket engines.

: The business end of a Falcon 1 rocket stage fuel tank stands nearly
: ready to be mated with a rocket motor and blasted into space.

: The Falcon 9's top nose cone fairing, left, is built around a
: multi-armed support structure to provide a rigid skeleton when
: forming the composite shell. The top nose cone will form the
: exterior of the top of the rocket and partially protect the payload.

: Much larger than the Falcon 1, the Falcon 9 first stage, right, is
: ready for its end cap to be attached (see bottom photo).

: The first and second stages of the Falcon 9, left and right
: respectively in top photo, are nearly identical, with the second
: stage being a shorter version of the first. The domes and walls of
: the stages are made with a superstrong aluminum-lithium alloy.

: The end caps are covered with a special heat shielding designed to
: protect the stages upon reentry so they can be recovered and reused.

: Several rocket motors sit waiting to attached to Falcon rockets or
: test platforms, but first they will need to be assembled. The stand
: in the photo below supports the rocket motor during the assembly
: process.

: These motors take the propellant and focus it in the right
: direction. They're right where all those impressive flames shoot
: out at launch. The special shape creates the huge amount of thrust
: that gets the rocket into space.

: Machinists in the SpaceX shop use computerized mills and lathes to
: form raw chunks of exotic alloys into working rocket parts.

: In the top photo, a machinist inspects a small part he is drilling
: with a computerized mill.

: Another machinist waits for a robotic press to finish shaping what
: appears to be a fuel tank fairing, as seen in slide 6.

: A rocket motor is being formed in a milling machine. The hoses
: hanging from the door are used to lubricate the bit and wash away
: slivers of metal the mill removes.

: A robotic drill press cuts precise, computer-guided holes into a
: block of metal that will soon find its way into a rocket.

: Here, a machinist adjusts the tooling on a large hydraulic press
: that is shaping a fuel tank fairing.

: A partially finished rocket motor awaits machining next to a mill.

Mark Reiff