Posted: Oct 12, 2005 08:35 pm EDT
They were scheduled for an October 2004 launch and then a next launch window was set for mid to late January 2005. Then the August deadline went busted. "I think Ive come to realize what makes orbital rocket development so tough. It is not that any particular element is all that difficult, but rather that you are forced to develop a very complex product that cant be fully tested in its real environment until launch and, when you do launch, there can be zero significant errors," said the chief back in January.

Last week, Elon Musk, the 33-year-old South African who earned multi-millions from the sale of Web-software maker Zip2 to Compaq in 1999 and of PayPal to eBay in 2003, arrived with an update on the current state of things. <cutoff>

<b>Launch target date: October 31 </b>

"Target launch date for Falcon I maiden flight is Halloween (October 31) from our island launch complex in the Kwajalein Atoll. The customer for this mission is DARPA and the Air Force and the payload will be FalconSat-2, part of the Air Force Academys satellite program that will measure space plasma phenomena, which can adversely affect space-based communications, including GPS and other civil and military communications."

<b>Falcon 1 for prix fixe payloads</b>

"I want to emphasize that although SpaceX development is now primarily on the Falcon 5/9, Falcon 1 is and will always remain a very important part of our business. All of us at SpaceX really believe in the small satellite market and we will never turn away from it or relegate it to a back corner. I think that once the satellite market has time to adapt to its existence, Falcon 1 may very well see the highest launch rate per year of any rocket in the world."

"We have also changed our pricing policy to reflect the all inclusive price of launch to make things really clear. Some people were under the impression that range and 3rd party insurance costs were millions of dollars. Everything is now included, unless you have a really complex spacecraft or require an outside mission assurance process, and it is the same price weve had since 2002 - $5.9M for the vehicle plus $0.8M for the launch range, 3rd party insurance and payload integration."

<b>Falcon 9 for Space Hotel</b>

"In addition to the six Falcon 1 launches, we now have two customers on the Falcon 9 launch manifest, one US government customer in 2007 and then Bigelow Aerospace in 2008. With Falcon 9s ability to place any size of satellite into geosynchronous orbit, we are seeing considerable interest from the commercial satellite sector. Im confident that after the launch of Falcon 1, we will be able to add a number of new customers for Falcon 9."

<b>The Island of Dr. Yes</b>

"In June, after Titan IVs launch from Vandenberg was delayed yet again to sometime in late 2005, we decided to switch the maiden launch of Falcon 1 to an island in the Kwajalein Atoll that we are leasing from the US Army. For those unaware, SpaceX has a launch restriction specifying that we cannot fly from our Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site until the multi-billion dollar Titan IV mission departs. In theory, there is a tiny chance that our rocket could go off course and damage the T-IV, which is sitting on its pad, so our ability to launch from there has been put on pause."

"The Kwajalein Atoll is essentially a huge reef that occasionally extends above water, forming a chain of islands. The biggest island is also called Kwajalein and contains almost all of the US personnel in the area. Politically, the Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, but is leased by the US Army for use as a missile test range and communications & tracking facility. As a result of hundreds of millions of dollars of investment by the Defense Department over the past several decades, Kwajalein is home to some of the worlds most powerful radar tracking and space communications systems."

<b>Number one priority in June</b>

"Our island in the Atoll is named Omelek and it is about halfway up the island chain on the eastern side. The Atolls location is advantageous for a number of reasons. Most significant is its location at 9 deg. N latitude, placing it much closer to the equator than the 28 deg. N latitude of Cape Canaveral, where our other eastward trajectory launch pad is located. That allows us to take more advantage of the Earths rotation and deliver increased payload to orbit. It also means that a much smaller plane change maneuver (to 0 deg.) is needed for geosynchronous satellites."

"Kwajalein activity had been percolating along for about eighteen months, mostly dealing with regulatory matters, but it became our number one priority in June when we shifted first launch from Vandenberg to Omelek. From having only partially complete concrete foundations in June, the team has kicked butt and we now have the following in place:

Launch stand and vehicle erector
Vehicle hangar
Umbilical tower
Helium pressurization system
Nitrogen purge system
Liquid oxygen storage tanks
RP-1 kerosene tanks
A liquid oxygen generating plant
Dual redundant heavy duty generators
Office building (broken into pieces, brought over from another island and reassembled)
Fiber optic communications from Omelek to Kwajalein
Remote camera systems
Remote control of the launch site
10k class clean room for satellite integration

The Army and Kwajalein Range Services have really stepped up to the plate to help get all this done so rapidly and deserve a lot of thanks. In addition to all the physical work that has taken place, a lot of effort has gone into ensuring that the rocket is safe for flight with a fully qualified, independent and redundant thrust termination system. It has also been great working with the Air Force and DARPA as the primary customers, together with NASA in a supporting role, for this first flight.

<b>Literally a tropical paradise</b>

Our launch control center is located on Kwajalein Island along with guest offices for our customers. The main island also has hotels, shops, a cafeteria and sports facilities. For potential customers out there, I should mention that Kwajalein has some of the worlds best scuba diving and snorkeling! It is literally a tropical paradise."

<i>These guys are working on a 2 stage rocket that will undercut payload prices by two thirds when all glitches are worked out. An upgraded version of the rocket (Falcon V now upgraded with 4 added engines to Falcon 9) will be the carrying vehicle for the prototype inflatable space hotel of Robert Bigelow, owner of Las Vegas-based Budget Suites of America Hotel Chain. </i>


#Space #feature