Parabolic Arc

SpaceX vice president and general counsel Tim Hughes laid out the company’s ambitious launch schedule for its Falcon 9 vehicle during a presentation to the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) on October 30. The company envisions the first test flight taking place in the second quarter of next year, with three astronauts flying to the International Space Station aboard a Dragon spacecraft sometime in 2011.

The schedule is as follows:

Demo C1, Q2 2009 – Core Functionality Only
Very basic, up & back functionality
Tests fundamentals and puts an early success on the books

Demo C2, Q4 2009 – ISS Fly-By
Approaches to within 10 km of ISS
Establishes command & telemetry cross-link
Demonstrates commanding by ISS crew

Demo C3, Q1 2010 – ISS Berthing
ISS Proximity Operations, capture and berthing demo
Return cargo safely to Earth
Establishes system as operational

If funding for Crew Capability option is turned on in 2010:

Demo D1, 2011 – Unmanned high altitude abort

Demo D2, 2011 – Crew transport to ISS (three crew)
Cargo mission will have proven ISS rendezvous and berthing operations
A “light” flight crew (3) and minimal cargo to provide max delta-V and life support margins

Demo D3, 2012 – Crew transport to ISS (seven crew)
Verifies ability to transport full complement of crew

SpaceX envisions that Falcon 9′s will cost $36.75 million, all inclusive, in 2008 dollars. The smaller Falcon 1 rocket will cost $8.1 million. The company has 570 employees and is growing at 50 percent per year, Hughes told COMSTAC.

He also said there is a “groundswell” of interest in using a robotic version of the Dragon spacecraft, called DragonLab, for missions that do not dock with ISS. Among the possible missions:

• Biotech/biomedical research (Flying on C2 Demo mission)
• Instrument & sensor developers
• Materials & space environments researchers
• Life sciences
• Microgravity research
• Radiation effects research
• Shuttle/ISS experimenters (without other flight opportunities)
• Earth sciences (short-duration LEO missions)
• Sounding rocket community
• Space physics & relativity.

Earlier this week, the company conducted a workshop for potential users of the DragonLab.