The SpaceX project may have suffered a third consecutive
rocket launch failure last week, but this won’t stop Elon Musk and his team
from achieving a new milestone in space vehicle development. The Falcon 1
Flight 3 mission was scheduled for August 2, but a problem during stage
separation stopped it from reaching orbit this time.
However, Elon Muck, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, said that
although a big disappointment, Flight 3 also had some good sides to it, such as
the new Merlin 1C engine, which will be used in the Falcon 9 mission, whose
behavior was “picture perfect.”
The Merlin engine was developed internally by SpaceX, but it
is based on a long series of engines that have already proven their
capabilities in space missions. Merlin’s pintle style injector was first used
in the Apollo Moon program.
The Falcon 9 vehicle is part of a family of vehicles
designed to deliver spacecrafts to their specific destination by combining technological
advances in flight environment and time to launch with high reliability and
lower costs.
Just like Falcon 1, Falcon 9 is a two stage launch vehicle,
powered by liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1). The Falcon 9 design
includes the same engines, structural architecture, avionics and launch system.
It measures 54.9 m (180 ft) in length, it is 3.6 m (12 ft) wide, and it has a
mass of approximately 333,000 kg (735,000 lb).
Falcon 1 has the lowest price launch on the market, and
according to SpaceX, it should be available for launched by mid 2010. Although the
third flight for Falcon 1 went bad, Musk said “SpaceX will not skip a beat in
execution going forward,” adding that flight four is already in the making, and
flight five will be right behind that. As a precautionary measure, SpaceX has
already ensured enough funding to continue the launching of Falcon 1 and
develop Falcon 9 and Dragon.
The primary mission for Falcon 1 is to send three satellites
into orbit, one belonging to the Department of Defense, and two smaller NASA
satellites. The satellites attach to the Falcon 1 second stage through the
Secondary Payload Adaptor and Separation System (SPASS) developed by a company
owned by the Government of Malaysia.
“Falcon 9 development will also continue unabated, taking
into account the lessons learned with Falcon 1,” added Musk. “There should be
absolutely zero question that SpaceX will prevail in reaching orbit and
demonstrating reliable space transport. For my part, I will never give up.”
SpaceX is the winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital
Transportation Services competition (COTS). Its mission is to conduct three
flights of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, which will
culminate with Dragon’s berthing with the ISS.
According to the agreement with NASA, SpaceX will provide
solutions for spaceflights to the International Space Station (ISS) after the
Space Shuttle retires in 2010, as the only COTS contender with capabilities to
return pressurized cargo and crew back to Earth.
