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]

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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)

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Some Good News For SpaceX: Falcon 9 Test Successful

It wasn't exactly a good week for SpaceX, what with their Falcon 1 rocket failing to reach orbit...for the third time in a row. But at least they were able to squeak one good piece of news in the few days that has been August. On August 1st the company announced that it had successfully test fired the first Falcon 9 launch vehicle 1st stage consisting of nine Merlin 1C rocket engines. This milestone helped SpaceX complete a major NASA requirement for the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program; in which NASA hopes to use commercial services, like SpaceX and the Falcon 9, to deliver crewmembers and cargo to the International Space Station. The static test firing at their Texas Test Facility outside McGregor had a Falcon 9 first stage burn through 3,200 lbs. of kerosene and liquid oxygen and generated 832,000 pounds of force (lbf). To put it into perspective, that would equate to the maximum thrust of four 747s combined. SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, said in a statement, “This was the most difficult milestone in development of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and it also constitutes a significant achievement in US space vehicle development." The company has scheduled the first flight of its heavy lifting Falcon 9 rocket for 2009. Hopefully it will have better luck than it's little brother, the Falcon 1.

(SpaceX)

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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

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Magic Dragon Space Capsule

We have found some details on the UK's first commercially designed and built manned space capsule that was delivered to Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in 2005, but never flew. SpaceX had grand plans to launch it on top of its Falcon 5 rocket.

Up to this point, this has been a rather secret operation and no actual pictures were ever seen of this smaller capsule, referred to as the Magic Dragon. The MD was to designed for a three-day journey to take crew or cargo to the International Space Station and also act as an ISS emergency return vehicle. Since 2005, SpaceX has replaced its Falcon 5 rocket with the Falcon 9.

As you can imagine, the designer, Andy Elson, ran into some difficulties when it came down to getting dimensions for the ISS common berthing module (CBM) as it is not exactly information NASA is just putting on a ISS informational pamphlet or in History Channel documentary. Also, another reason it never got off the ground is because SpaceX decided it wanted a seven person capacity capsule rather than the MD's three person capacity.

The MD has been redesigned, as you can see below, and now has the desired seven person capacity. After a couple test flights in 2009, it is scheduled for launch and docking with the ISS in 2010. Also, it is just referred to as the "Dragon" now. Don't screw it up.


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