![]() ![]() This will culminate in Dragon berthing with the International Space Station and returning safely to Earth. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, SpaceX is able to offer light, medium and heavy lift capability, delivering spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous transfer orbit to interplanetary missions.Īs winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for NASA. SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. The actual launch date is dependent on a variety of factors, which may include regulatory approvals, launch range scheduling, weather, customer payload readiness and vehicle to launch pad integration. Target date refers to delivery of the flight vehicle to the launch site. The full SpaceX mission manifest extends into 2011 and lists nine customers on twelve flights, including three demonstration flights of SpaceX's new Dragon spacecraft for NASA, as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition. ![]() "In addition, we're very pleased to have signed a significant new US government customer for our next Falcon 1 flight, and will be releasing details shortly." "We are on track to deliver our first Falcon 9 vehicle to Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008," said Gwynne Shotwell, Vice President of Business Development for SpaceX. (SpaceX) today announced its newly revised mission manifest listing twelve flights of its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles. SpaceX release First SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle Remains on Schedule for Delivery to Cape Canaveral The first Falcon 9 is scheduled for delivery to the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral (Complex 40) by the end of 2008. Merlin 1C will power SpaceX's next Falcon 1 mission, scheduled to lift off in Spring 2008 from the Central Pacific. It is the first new American booster engine in a decade and only the second American booster engine since the Space Shuttle Main Engine was developed thirty years ago. The Merlin 1C next-generation, liquid-fueled rocket booster engine is among the highest performing gas generator cycle kerosene engines ever built, exceeding the Boeing Delta II main engine, the Lockheed Atlas II main engine, and on par with the Saturn V F-1 engine. A new engine can be installed in a period of hours, a feature that will provide significant operational efficiency and responsiveness on the launch pad. SpaceX has designed its Merlin engine for rapid mounting and change-out. With all engines firing, the Falcon 9 can generate over one million pounds of thrust in vacuum or four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. ![]() The test series will continue with five, seven and finally the full complement of nine engines. Following stage separation, the Falcon 9 second stage continues accelerating the payload to a final change in velocity that may be in excess of Mach 30 for missions beyond low Earth orbit. When operating in flight, the first stage will accelerate the 180-ft-long Falcon 9 vehicle to more than ten times the speed of sound in that short period of time. The next run, scheduled for February, will use three engines operating for a full first stage mission duty cycle of three minutes. This two-engine test was the largest to date on the BFTS (Big Falcon Test Stand). Our propulsion and test team has done a remarkable job." No significant problems were encountered transitioning from single-engine testing in November, which suggests that we will be able to ramp up rapidly to a full complement of nine Merlin engines. "It marks the first time that we have simultaneously fired two engines on the same stage. "This is a major hardware milestone for our company," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. The engines operated at full power, generating over 180,000 pounds of force, equivalent to a Boeing 777 at full power, and consuming 700 lbs per second of fuel and liquid oxygen during the run. (SpaceX) conducted the first multi-engine firing of its Falcon 9 medium to heavy lift rocket at its Texas Test Facility outside McGregor. 18, 2008, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. ![]()
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