Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "برنامج المريخ الخاص بسبيس إكس" in Arabic language version.
Significantly, the Merlin engines—like roughly 80 percent of the components for Falcon and Dragon, including even the flight computers—are made in-house. That's something SpaceX didn't originally set out to do, but was driven to by suppliers' high prices. Mueller recalls asking a vendor for an estimate on a particular engine valve. 'They came back [requesting] like a year and a half in development and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just way out of whack. And we're like, 'No, we need it by this summer, for much, much less money.' They go, 'Good luck with that,' and kind of smirked and left.' Mueller's people made the valve themselves, and by summer they had qualified it for use with cryogenic propellants. 'That vendor, they iced us for a couple of months,' Mueller says, 'and then they called us back: 'Hey, we're willing to do that valve. You guys want to talk about it?' And we're like, 'No, we're done.' He goes, 'What do you mean you're done?' 'We qualified it. We're done.' And there was just silence at the end of the line. They were in shock.' That scenario has been repeated to the point where, Mueller says, 'we passionately avoid space vendors.
Musk stated it's possible that the first spaceship would be ready for tests in four years, with the booster ready a few years after that, but he shied away from exact schedules in his presentation. 'We're kind of being intentionally fuzzy about the timeline,' he said. 'We're going to try and make as much progress as we can with a very constrained budget.'
Musk stated it's possible that the first spaceship would be ready for tests in four years, with the booster ready a few years after that, but he shied away from exact schedules in his presentation. 'We're kind of being intentionally fuzzy about the timeline,' he said. 'We're going to try and make as much progress as we can with a very constrained budget.'
Significantly, the Merlin engines—like roughly 80 percent of the components for Falcon and Dragon, including even the flight computers—are made in-house. That's something SpaceX didn't originally set out to do, but was driven to by suppliers' high prices. Mueller recalls asking a vendor for an estimate on a particular engine valve. 'They came back [requesting] like a year and a half in development and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just way out of whack. And we're like, 'No, we need it by this summer, for much, much less money.' They go, 'Good luck with that,' and kind of smirked and left.' Mueller's people made the valve themselves, and by summer they had qualified it for use with cryogenic propellants. 'That vendor, they iced us for a couple of months,' Mueller says, 'and then they called us back: 'Hey, we're willing to do that valve. You guys want to talk about it?' And we're like, 'No, we're done.' He goes, 'What do you mean you're done?' 'We qualified it. We're done.' And there was just silence at the end of the line. They were in shock.' That scenario has been repeated to the point where, Mueller says, 'we passionately avoid space vendors.
