The final flight of NASA’s space shuttle Atlantis in July marked the end of the 30-year U.S. space shuttle program. The baton has now been passed and the era of private commercialization of space has dawned. There’s no doubt that the future of space flight is being made and tested here in McGregor — and that SpaceX is playing the key role.

On this site — once a bomb manufacturing plant during World War II known as “Area L” — a new generation of engineers is recreating and rethinking the future of space missions. They’re doing so in our backyards and to the economic betterment of Central Texas.

This comes at a time when most cities are struggling to find new ways to attract businesses in a sluggish economy. Yet Waco is fortunate to host several thriving aviation and space-related companies such as SpaceX that are adding jobs as they seek to conquer new frontiers of outer space.

The towering 135-foot-tall concrete tripod stand at the SpaceX facility is visible for miles in western McLennan County. Every Merlin engine and Draco thruster — which power their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft — is tested at the facility before being launched.
Sandra Sanchez / Waco Tribune-Herald

“We feel a tremendous sense of responsibility,” SpaceX communications director Kirstin Grantham told me after a two-hour private tour of the McGregor facility last week. “One, because we’re taking over the responsibilities of carrying cargo to the International Space Station, and two because SpaceX is the frontrunner for returning human capabilities to the United States. We believe we will be the first ones to carry U.S. astronauts back (into space).”

Humble beginnings

SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif., and started its McGregor site in 2003 with just three employees. It has grown to 135 employees and has eight full-time job openings. Most welding and construction-related positions are filled locally, and the company raves about the talented pool of applicants trained at nearby Texas State Technical College.

For its higher-paying engineering positions, SpaceX attracts the best and brightest graduates from Purdue University, Texas A&M University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who then become part of our community.

They’re an interesting and young breed. The average age of a SpaceX engineer is 28, compared to the average nationwide industry age of 56, said 28-year-old Lauren Dreyer, director of business development for SpaceX in McGregor.

Dreyer was Employee No. 24 when she was hired in 2006. Like most here, she has an impressive resume that includes a degree in mechanical engineering from Baylor University and a master’s of business administration degree from Texas A&M. But unlike most, she’s from Central Texas and grew up in nearby Gatesville.

She admits some employees at first hesitate to work in this removed western McLennan County town of 5,000. But once here, she said, their creativity thrives in the SpaceX work environment and their outlook changes forever.

Creating the future

In these hangars, some circa World War II, there’s a relaxed environment despite this high-pressure industry. Casual T-shirts are the norm and finding a way to do more with less is expected. Nothing is impossible, and the impossible is what they strive to achieve.

Think Apollo 13, only 40 years later. They are years beyond themselves in genius. They don’t adhere to corporate dress codes but they are masters of technology, sophisticated software and complex gadgetry. This is rocket science, after all.

SpaceX engineers monitor tests from a control room located in a building constructed during World War II and recently renovated.
Sandra Sanchez / Waco Tribune-Herald

Every Merlin engine and Draco thruster — which power their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft — is tested here before being launched. Every component is developed within the company and its quality assured in McGregor.

This is its birthplace, and that’s a huge source of pride for McGregor.

So when the Dragon spacecraft was launched on Dec. 8, 2010, and became the first commercial space flight to orbit Earth and safely return, it was McGregor’s victory.

Several of the company’s McGregor employees were selected to retrieve the 12-foot-wide Dragon vessel 500 miles off the southern coast of California — again highlighting the importance of the Central Texas site to its operations.

“It was special for our guys to be a part of that huge moment for the company and the country as well,” Dreyer said.

This followed the company’s June 2010 historic first launch of its Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk called it “a major milestone not only for SpaceX but the increasingly bright future of space flight.”

It proved that what once had been dominated and run by the government could be turned over to the private sector. In doing so, more jobs will be created and hopefully less taxpayer money will be used on space flights in the future.

Commercializing space

With the shuttle program ended, the U.S. is dependent upon Russia to transport our astronauts. Russia recently raised the price per seat on a flight to the International Space Station from $47 million to $63 million. Musk vows SpaceX can do it for $20 million.

They hope to carry astronauts via their Dragon spacecraft — which resembles a larger version of the old Apollo 13 module-type capsules — by the year 2014.

“That’s a significant savings for U.S. taxpayers,” Dreyer said.

This past decade SpaceX has enjoyed a stream of firsts and industry successes:

*  In April the company was awarded a $75 million contract with NASA to design and develop a launch escape system for the Dragon spacecraft. The congressionally mandated award is part of the Commercial Crew Development initiative that started in 2009 to help private companies mature concepts and technologies for human spaceflight.

Although NASA space shuttles did not have launch escape systems, Dragon’s capsule-type design provides for such an option, Grantham said. And that’s what the company is working toward in earnest. If an escape system is approved — which could safely ferret astronauts away from a troubled vessel — SpaceX would be one step closer to transporting astronauts.

The SpaceX facility in McGregor spans 631 acres.
SpaceX photo

“What’s important is we are the only company which has already launched the spacecraft for carrying astronauts,” Grantham said.

*  In the meantime, the company will operate 12 flights to the International Space Station via its Dragon spacecraft carrying cargo under a $1.6 billion government contract.

*  The first test flight (which is not counted among the dozen scheduled flights) is targeted for Nov. 30, Grantham said. If successful, SpaceX will become the first company to berth a spacecraft to the International Space Station.

Certainly, that would better position SpaceX for manned space flight. “All 12 of those flights to carry cargo will give us tremendous information,” Grantham said. “It’s like having 12 test flights before the actual flight with humans.”

In McGregor, the goal of flying astronauts is a daunting challenge that requires endless tests and re-configurations. Repetition and patience is the norm. Engineers record data minutia on all aspects of the engines and rockets and circuitry, documenting even the tiniest of details.

They average one test per day, though most residents aren’t aware of it because of extreme measures to help buffet noise and heat by using spray water.

But, a three-minute test with all nine Merlin engines fired can be heard for miles. When all engines are fired up on the 135-foot-tall concrete tripod, the earth shakes. Employees are kept a mile back. It’s amazing the adjacent bunkers full of equipment and gadgetry can withstand the immense power and force emitted.

Other tests of thrusters, like the Draco thruster used in orbit, erupt on two smaller test stands that allow for multiple concurrent tests. One stand became operational just last month — a sure sign the company is expanding. The stand was built using $500,000 worth of steel purchased in the area.

From inside the SpaceX control room, engineers communicate with workers via headphones as they track progress and monitor multiple computer screens that show every angle of every test.

To test the Merlin engine, a 5-inch thick notebook of procedures must be followed step by step. That can make predicting exact test times difficult as engineers must halt proceedings if any step goes awry or needs more study.

“It’s a test, and you can’t set a clock to it. It’s a learning exercise,” Grantham said. “The goal isn’t lighting the engine at this specific time. The goal is to learn everything possible about the system through this process, and sometimes when you are running a test you have to go where it takes you.”

McGregor residents seem used to the minor noise disturbances and the occasional shaking of the earth. The city extended a new lease to SpaceX in March, doubling its size.

McGregor Mayor Jimmy Hering said the town welcomes and encourages what SpaceX is doing.

“We have a great relationship with them,” he said. “They bring in a wide array of very bright people — rocket scientists, so to speak. They’re doing complicated things out there. One day I hope they take us to Mars!”

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