LOGAN, Utah -- Unshaken by a launch
failure of its Falcon 1, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is
pressing forward on a return-to-flight of its privately-built booster.
Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer of El
Segundo, California-based SpaceX said the maiden
liftoff earlier this year and subsequent loss of Falcon 1 has led to a
shakeout of the vehicle prior to its next flight.
Launch date for the booster's takeoff - carrying two NASA
test hardware payloads - is targeted for November from SpaceX's Pacific
Ocean island launch facility in the Kwajalein Atoll.
However, that date could slip into December, Musk told SPACE.com
in an exclusive interview at the 20th Annual Conference on Small Satellites
held here at Utah State University.
"November is the plan," Musk said. "Current expectations are
that the launch will occur in November...although if I was a betting man, we'd
start doing our first test firings in November and launch in December."
Musk pointed out that SpaceX rocketeers have massively
upgraded the rocket's health monitoring system - software that verifies the
booster's condition leading up to engine ignition and release. He said he
expected false-positive indications and aborts to occur in shaking out the
system, leading to the booster launch in December.
The next Falcon 1 rocket will carry two NASA test articles:
a low-cost Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System transmitter and an
autonomous range destruct system package. The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) is the primary launch customer, Musk said, with the
NASA payloads chosen by DARPA.
Rest in pieces
In focusing on the March 24 failure of Falcon 1 on its first
trial flight, Musk recounted the experience.
"We initially thought there might have been a [launch] pad
processing error," Musk said.
Later investigation of the failure pointed to a small
aluminum nut designed to hold a fuel pipe fitting in place had failed due to
stress erosion cracking. That led to a kerosene leak causing the Falcon 1's
main engine to catch fire shortly after liftoff, with the vehicle failing
shortly thereafter.
Recovered rocket debris helped to sort things out, Musk
said. The rocket landed on an island reef, coming to rest in pieces not far
from the launch pad in about four feet of water.
"Almost no rocket debris was on the island except the
satellite," Musk said. The small experimental spacecraft called FalconSat-2 was
crafted by cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Tossed free of the failed
rocket, it slammed through the roof of an unoccupied storage shed on the
island, crashing next to the shipping container used to transport it to
Kwajalein.
Responsive launch
Musk said that the booster's premier flight "was about the
rocket not the satellite." DARPA was reasonably happy, he added, with the
outcome of the flight. "They're not naïve...they weren't expecting things to go
perfectly. They thought that something would go wrong."
What DARPA was evaluating, Musk said, is did the rocket
demonstrate responsive launch and did SpaceX obtain a lot of launch data.
"And the answer to both of those is yes," Musk added. "As a
result, after first launch, they were actually reasonably happy and bought
launch two. They considered the first launch to be a success on those criteria
and I agree with them. We demonstrated a very quick launch and we got a lot of
good data on the vehicle. It wasn't as successful as we would have liked but on
the criteria that they had for responsive launch demonstration it was a
success."
The Falcon 1's maiden blastoff accomplished 30 seconds of
powered flight, prior to loss of the launcher.
Perfect telemetry
Musk pointed out that the flight did successfully showcase
the launch pad hold down system, the rocket's guidance and navigation
equipment, and the booster's engine and thrust vector control, among other
items.
"We have perfect telemetry," Musk continued, "all the way
down to the damn thing hitting the reef."
Still, there are other aspects of the rocket that have not
seen an in-flight shakeout.
"Without doubt, it would have been much better to have at
least gotten to 2nd stage ignition. That would have proven out the
separation...proven out 2nd stage ignition. It would have been nice to have
gotten that far," Musk said.
Also to fly skyward from the SpaceX Kwajalein launch area is
the company's more
powerful Falcon 9, now under production, with three already sold, Musk
said.
The next big event for Falcon 9 is completion of the
booster's large first stage tank, expected to be achieved in the next two to
three months. The tooling to build the launcher is on track as is a thrust
frame for handling the rocket's cluster of engines.
Vandenberg update
Regarding setting up his rocket facilities on Kwajalein,
Musk said, while initially difficult to create a capability there, things have
smoothed out.
As for overall cost spent to date on Kwajalein, "I shudder
to think," Musk said - noting it's a figure presently somewhere on the
order of $10 million. A roughly equal amount has been spent on preparing a
SpaceX launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
"Kwajalein is working out well...we're pretty well dialed in
there," Musk said.
As for the firm's Vandenberg launch site, SpaceX has been
advised that they can launch from their own site once they have had a
successful flight from somewhere else.
There has been pressure
placed on the company's use of its own pad due to a neighboring Lockheed Martin
Atlas 5 launch complex. "Every time they talk to me it gets more valuable...a
couple of hundred million dollars every time we talk. The last I heard was
about $600 million dollars...some crazy number," Musk said.
"We can launch from another launch pad at Vandenberg without
having a successful launch somewhere else," Musk explained. But doing so would
entail another round of construction costs, he said, and paying for associated
environmental impact studies that are "outrageously difficult."
Smart money
Musk said that his personal investment in SpaceX to date is
slightly over a $100 million.
"We'll go public at some point and I think the evaluation
will be good...but no rush to go public or anything. We'll probably bring in some
external funding next year," Musk said, "but we'll see...it may not be
necessary."
For customers out there launching on SpaceX rockets down the
road, "there should be no doubt whatsoever that we will persevere and we'll be
there to launch their satellite," Musk emphasized. "We're on track to be cash
flow positive this year. I think that's pretty good for a company in its fourth
year of operation."
At week's end, SpaceX will find out from NASA if they have
been selected as a player in the Commercial
Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. NASA plans to spend about
$500 million on the COTS over the next five years, with private firms offering
commercial cargo and crew services to the International Space Station (ISS).
COTS is
viewed by Musk as one of the highest value-for-money programs that NASA has
ever done. "That's my prediction for it...this will be some of the smartest money
that NASA has ever spent."
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