SpaceX Falcon 1 Finally Makes It Into Orbit

Well I guess SpaceX CEO Elon Musk won't have to commit suicide after all. His company finally got their Falcon 1 rocket into orbit today following a successful launch from the U.S. Army's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Defense Test Site on the Kwajalein Atoll. This was Falcon 1's fourth launch attempt with the previous three resulting in failure. The most recent, Flight Three, took place less than one month ago. But today is a new day, and Falcon 1 has become the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach Earth orbit from the ground. This is quite an amazing feat they've accomplished even without the help of Star Trek's beloved Scotty. "As the saying goes, the fourth time's the charm," Musk told his employees after the launch. "It's great to have this giant monkey off my back." While today's launch was only carrying a dummy satellite, this is just the beginning for the space launch startup. Musk and SpaceX are planning several commercial launches in the future as they continue to develop the Falcon family of rockets that they intend to one day use to provide launch services for NASA to the ISS. My hat is certainly off to SpaceX today on their momentous achievement, but I have to concur with PointNiner regular J.B. Does this mean we have corporate-owned ICBMs now?

You can watch SpaceX's webcast of the entire launch of Falcon 1 Flight 4 below. The video is long at 10 minutes, but it is interesting. Note how you can hear the SpaceX employees celebrating in the background following a successful first stage separation. That is because this failed to happen on Flight 3 which resulted in a vehicle loss. Obviously they become overjoyed also when the Kestrel second stage engine shuts down following a successful orbital insertion. Congrats SpaceX!

[Space.com]

Home to PointNiner

Even Star Trek's Scotty Couldn't Help Doomed Falcon 1

The level of irony in this story is dangerously overwhelming. It turns out that there was more to the payload of that recent SpaceX Falcon 1 launch that failed to reach orbit (again). It turns out also on board were the ashes of the late James Doohan, better known to Trekkies as Scotty, the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise from the original TV version of Star Trek. Also on board were the ashes of NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts. Their ashes were to be blasted into low-Earth orbit on the doomed Falcon 1 rocket in a service provided by Celestis, Inc, a company that specializes in memorial spaceflights. As if this story wasn't ironic enough already, this fiasco comes on the heels of an attempt last year to launch Doohan and Cooper on board a suborbital rocket in New Mexico that crash landed magnificently in the mountains of the White Sands Missile Range. After a search and recovery effort in New Mexico that took a week's time, Celestis arranged for the two to hitch a ride on Saturday's ill-fated launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1. The ashes of Scotty, known on the show for giving his starship more power when it was desperately needed, apparently hasn't been enough for his two real world galactic jaunts. Unfortunately, I'm starting to think Scotty's ashes just couldna teek namoore.

(New York Times via Engadget)

Home to PointNiner

SpaceX Faces Strike 3 On Third Falcon 1 Launch Failure

SpaceX, the space start-up founded by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, hit another snag last night when the third launch of their Falcon 1 rocket failed to reach orbit. This follows previous failures that include an in-flight explosion and another failure to reach orbit with the Falcon 1. If you're a nerd like me and you were watching the live webcast, you noticed that around 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight the live video feed was cut. Allegedly the two stages of the Falcon 1 failed to separate after stage 1 burnout. SpaceX hasn't released whether or not the 2nd stage ignited while still attached to the 1st stage, but that would have been an interesting sight. Either way, this setback is a disappointment to Musk and SpaceX though Musk seemed confident in the performance of the 1st stage. Not one to give up, Musk is ready to press on with plans for flight number 4 of the Falcon 1 rocket amidst another investigation as to why number 3 failed to reach orbit. The two stage liquid oxygen and kerosene launch vehicle was carrying two small NASA satellites during the unsuccessful launch from Omelek Island of the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Number 4's flight was originally scheduled to take place by the end of this month, but we will have to watch to see how the investigation of number 3 plays into that schedule.

(Space.com)
Photo courtesy of SpaceX

Home to PointNiner