State grants to benefit SpaceX
Florida Today
“Nearly $300,000 in state grant money designed to benefit Air Force-related projects in Brevard County will help fund a helium gas pipeline tied to an upcoming SpaceX launch and fend off future potential budget cuts at Patrick Air Force Base.
“The biggest chunk of the defense grants, about $200,000, will be used to install a helium gas pipeline to pressurize the flight tank for the Falcon 9, a nine-engine rocket SpaceX hopes to launch in 2009 from Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral.”
Elon Musk (Credit: SpaceX)
NASA at 50: Privatizing Space
Washington Post
The results of a webchat Q&A with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who discusses the progress of his Falcon rockets and his dreams for Mars.
Aiming for Stars, Entrepreneurs May Also Fill Gaps
Washington Post
As NASA turns 50 this week, the space agency faces increasing competition from entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Richard Branson who are pushing for space tourism in low Earth orbit and trips to the moon and Mars.
Undaunted by three straight failures, SpaceX could launch its fourth Falcon 1 vehicle as early as Tuesday. Company founder Elon Musk’s latest blog update on Friday indicates that the company is close to a launch from its facility in the Marshall Islands.
“Having said that, it is still possible that we encounter an issue that needs to be investigated, which would delay launch until the next available window in late October. If preparations go smoothly, we will conduct a static fire on Saturday and launch sometime between Tuesday and Thursday (California time).”
Continue reading ‘Falcon 1 Could Launch as Early as Tuesday’
SpaceX faces biggest COTS challenge yet
Flight Global
“Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is preparing for what it admits is the toughest milestone yet for NASA’s commercial orbital transportation services programme (COTS), following the granting of its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) operational licence by the US Air Force.
“The licence will enable SpaceX to initiate launch operations for its Falcon 9 rocket…”
SpaceX launches DragonLab for recoverable scientific payload service
Flight Global
“Space Exploration Technologies is offering its Dragon capsule as a recoverable science cargo spacecraft with a first commercial flight target of 2010.
With the ability to return up to 3,000kg (6,600lb) of payload to Earth, SpaceX envisages that uses for its “DragonLab” will include instruments and sensor testing, radio and microgravity research, Earth observation and space environment and materials studies.”
A flatbed truck delivers a 125,000 gallon Liquid Oxygen Tank to the new SpaceX launch complex at SLC-40, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The tank will support fueling of the new Falcon 9 rocket, scheduled for first delivery by the end of 2008. Image: SpaceX.
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
Cape Canaveral FL – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has been granted an Operational License by the US Air Force for the use of Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. Receipt of the license, in conjunction with the approved Site Plan, paves the way for SpaceX to initiate Falcon 9 launch operations later this year.
“We are developing Falcon 9 to be a valuable asset to the American space launch fleet,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “The support we received from General Helms and the US Air Force has been immensely helpful in developing the pathfinder processes necessary for SpaceX to realize commercial space flights from the Cape.”
Continue reading ‘SpaceX Receives USAF License for Cape Canaveral Launches’
Falcon 1 lifts off on its second test flight. Credit: SpaceX
Third Time’s the Charm?
Geoffrey Little
Air & Space Magazine
“For [Elon] Musk, it’s a critical moment in his second career. A co-founder of PayPal with a personal fortune estimated at more than $300 million, the South African native has sunk more than a third of that amount into his 470-person space company. This is not a hobby; SpaceX’s manifest lists 14 launches through 2011, all with customers who have contracted for low-cost launches on Falcon 1 and the much larger Falcon 9, which is being built and tested for launch early next year.
“Musk aims to use these rockets and their variants to smash the current price to reach orbit. A Falcon-1 launch costs under $8 million, about half the industry average; the Falcon 9 goes for less than $37 million to lift 7,700 pounds to low Earth orbit; a planned Falcon-9 Heavy will be able to lift 62,000 pounds for $94.5 million.”
Rob Coppinger of Flightglobal and Hyperbola has a couple of SpaceX updates. CEO Elon Musk recently visited London, where he spoke before the United Kingdom’s Royal Aeronautical Society.
Musk says that his company, SpaceX, should complete development work on its first Dragon test vehicle by the end of the year. Dragon, which is designed to carry cargo and crew to the International Space Station, will be flight tested next year. The work is being done under NASA’s COTS program.
Coppinger also reports that Musk has set a price tag on the cost of sending a Dragon spacecraft on a circumlunar flight: $80 million.
This strikes me as a fairly low figure. It’s a bold claim coming from a company that has yet to fly anything successfully in space. SpaceX’s small Falcon 1 rocket has failed in two launches; a third attempt is set for later this summer. The larger Falcon 9 booster, which would be required for a lunar mission, has not yet flown. There also would be significant modifications required for the Dragon spacecraft, which is designed for orbital use.
Coppinger recorded Musk’s 10-minute address to the Royal Aeronautical Society and the hour-long Q&A that followed. You can access audio recordings here.
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
McGregor TX – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) conducted the first five-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor on Thursday, May 29. At full power the engines generated almost half a million pounds of force, and consumed 1,750 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second. This five engine test again sets the record as the most powerful test yet on the towering 235-foot tall test stand.
The test of the five Merlin 1C engines, arranged in a cross pattern like the Saturn V moon rocket, is the last step before firing the full complement of nine engines, scheduled for this summer. With all engines operating, the Falcon 9 generates over one million pounds of thrust in vacuum - four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft.
“This is the first time that we’ve added more than one engine at a time, and all phases of integration and testing went smoothly,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “As with previous tests, we saw no unexpected interactions between the engines, and are on schedule for adding four more engines.”
The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008. The next flight of SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled for late June or July of 2008.
Gregg Easterbrook takes issue with NASA’s “Who, us?” attitude toward protecting the Earth against errant asteroids in a piece titled, “The Sky is Falling,” in The Atlantic. “The odds that a potentially devastating space rock will hit Earth this century may be as high as one in 10. So why isn’t NASA trying harder to prevent catastrophe?” Easterbook’s answer? NASA is obsessed with putting humans on the moon.
A Russian Progress vehicle was launched from Kazakhstan on Wednesday with fresh supplies for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. And what will the fastest men alive be receiving in additional to their regular shipment of clothes, oxygen and fuel? Snails. Ninety of them. (No, they’re not going to eat them; it’s all part of a biology experiment. Really.)
In other news, SpaceX’s Elon Musk is saying that he could launch astronauts to ISS aboard his Dragon spacecraft by 2011 if NASA gives the OK to develop a human-rated version of the vehicle this summer. This date is at least two years (or four or five) before NASA would be able to launch its Orion vehicle.
This is an ambitious goal given that SpaceX has yet to successfully launch anything into space. It failed in both attempts to launch its small Falcon I rocket; a third attempt is scheduled for next month. Dragon will be launched atop the company’s larger Falcon 9 rocket, which has yet to fly.
Officials in Hawthorne, California are hoping that SpaceX will help bring the city back its aerospace glory days, the Daily Breeze reports. Elon Musk’s company is now building Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft in the same building where Boeing once assembled 747 fuselages.
“I think SpaceX will basically bring Hawthorne back to the aerospace heydays,” Hawthorne councilman Gary Parsons tells the newspaper. “You have a major anchor like SpaceX, and then you’ll have other smaller companies coming to Hawthorne to serve SpaceX. It’s sort of returning to the aerospace renaissance of the good old days when Hawthorne was a central hub of aerospace activity.”