The clock
is ticking towards the second planned
Falcon 1 rocket test for the private spaceflight firm Space Exploration
Technologies (SpaceX), nearly one year after an unsuccessful launch debut.
Liftoff is
slated for 7:00 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) from SpaceX's Omelek
Island launch site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall
Islands [image].
"The flight
readiness review conducted [Sunday] shows all systems are go for a launch
attempt," SpaceX
CEO Elon Musk wrote in a mission update to his El Segundo, California-based
firm's website, adding that the planned space shot could be delayed "if we have
even the tiniest concern."
SpaceX has
a four-hour window to launch today's Falcon 1 mission, with additional daily
flight opportunities through March 22. A
booster equipment concern, since resolved, and range safety personnel
issues delayed the planned launch several times.
The only glitch
Musk has reported for today's planned space shot involves an anomaly with the
global positioning system portion of the Falcon 1's guidance system. The
booster is designed to fly primarily on an inertial navigation guidance system,
using the GPS system as an aid to refine its path, he added.
Poised
to fly
SpaceX's
upcoming launch, dubbed DemoFlight 2, is a demonstration for the U.S. Defense
Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), which also funded Falcon
1's ill-fated debut in March 2006 [image].
That first
Falcon 1 test ended
shortly after liftoff after a fuel leak
and subsequent fire forced an engine shutdown about 34 seconds into the
flight [image].
Initially thought to be the result of human error,
the rocket failure was ultimately traced to the corrosion
of a small aluminum nut.
Since last
year's test, SpaceX has literally made hundreds
of improvements to both the Falcon 1 rocket and its ground support
facilities on the Kwajalein Atoll, Musk told SPACE.com in a telephone
interview.
"We didn't
just say we'll go back to the launch pad with the same vehicle and launch
again, and see if it works," Musk said. "We really have developed version two
of Falcon 1."
The year of
improvements has given SpaceX more confidence that, even if today's launch is
unsuccessful, the spaceflight firm will be able to recover relatively quickly,
Musk added.
"If
anything goes wrong with this launch, I wouldn't expect our next launch to be a
year from now," Musk said. "We've made every improvement we can think of. I
can't think of very much we could do to improve the robustness of the design."
Falcon
rocket family
SpaceX's
Falcon 1 rocket is a two-stage booster that stands about 68 feet (21 meters)
tall and carries a reusable first stage powered by the launch firm's Merlin 1
engine.
Designed to
launch small satellites into
low-Earth orbit, Falcon 1 rockets are expected to haul payloads of up to 1,256
pounds (570 kilograms) into space for about $7 million per mission, Musk told SPACE.com.
The booster
is the first of SpaceX's family of Falcon rockets that includes the Falcon 9 rocket,
a heavy-lift launcher currently under development to loft the Dragon crew
and cargo capsule. The Dragon and Falcon 9 projects [image]
comprise the SpaceX's entry for NASA's Commercial Orbital
Transportation System (COTS) to provide crew change
and resupply flights to the International Space
Station (ISS).
"Falcon 1
is our test vehicle really," Musk said, adding that the technology used in the
satellite booster will be upgraded for Falcon 9 launches.
Experiments
aboard
While the
primary goal of today's planned space shot is to demonstrate the Falcon 1
rocket's launch capability, the booster is also carrying a pair of experimental
payloads, SpaceX officials have said.
Gwynne
Shotwell, SpaceX's vice president of business development, has said
in the past that the second Falcon 1 rocket will carry a low-cost satellite
communications transceiver and an experimental autonomous flight safety system
during its upcoming launch.
The mission
is the first of at least three scheduled Falcon 1 missions for 2007.
A planned
summer launch is expected to orbit the TacSat-1 satellite for the U.S. Naval
Research Laboratory, with a follow-up mission to launch Razaksat - a Malaysian Earth-observation satellite - later this
year.
"Falcon 1
is intended to be the smallest useful orbital launch vehicle," Musk told SPACE.com.
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