SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch, June 4, 2010

[job1207]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

They are sending up a fully designed vehicle as noted. I went on to do a bit more reading. The main area of ongoing development will be for the Launch escape system. Apparently, that is the long end of the stick regarding manned flights for this system.

 

[mr_mark]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

job1207, you need to realize that Dragon and Falcon 9 are two separate systems. Falcon 9 is the system that is finished and fully flight ready and man rated. Dragon is only a qualifacation unit and is a totally separate system than the Falcon 9 launcher. Don't confuse the two. They are totally separate systems that are designed to work together. The Falcon 9 launcher is what the first launch is all about, not Dragon. Falcon 9 is designed for a variety of payloads manned and unmanned using the fairing configuration or Dragon.

 

[job1207]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Yes, I realize that. I am not sure why you needed to make that point. I was talking about development down the line. You have felt the need to qualify my last two statements now. We are kind of talking across one another. no problem.

Going back to my first comment, I would be willing to bet that this is the first nine engine rocket that was sent directly to orbit, without other qualifying flights of the suborbital portion. I hope they make it. COTS is very important to US spaceflight.

Then I noted that according to the web site, after this, the main area for possible future development is the launch abort system. While the dragon on this flight will be more like ballast then the final flight version ( I suppose ), overall, the system is very far along for the initial flight of an orbital rocket.

 

[Swampcat]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

This just arrived:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Emily Shanklin | Director, Marketing and Communications
media@SpaceX.com
310.363.6733

SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES FIRST STAGE 9-ENGINE ROCKET FIRING


Falcon 9 First Stage Headed to Cape Canaveral for Vehicle Integration



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

McGregor, Texas (October 21, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully conducted two static firings of the first stage, nine engine cluster for its Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The firings took place at SpaceX's Texas Test Site, a 300-acre structural and propulsion testing facility just outside of Waco, Texas. With completion of these tests, the first stage has now passed both structural and propulsion acceptance testing and will ship to Cape Canaveral in preparation for the first flight of Falcon 9.

The first test fired for 10 seconds and occurred on October 12th at approximately 7:30 pm CDT. The second test began around 4:30 pm CDT on October 16th, and lasted 30 seconds.

The first stage of Falcon 9 uses a cluster of nine SpaceX-designed and developed Merlin engines. Using rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen, the cluster generates nearly a million pounds of thrust for the vehicle upon liftoff. The Merlin engine is one of the only liquid rocket engines designed in the United States in the last few decades, and is now among the highest performing gas generator cycle kerosene engines ever built, exceeding the Boeing Delta II main engine, the Lockheed Martin Atlas II main engine, and on par with the Saturn V F-1 engine.

The stage will ship to SpaceX's launch site at Cape Canaveral next month to begin vehicle integration in preparation for first flight. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 will be a demonstration flight and will launch a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit into orbit to provide SpaceX with valuable aerodynamic and performance information.

For more information on the Falcon family of vehicles or the Dragon spacecraft products, please visit http://www.SpaceX.com.

Wow. I can't believe I beat docm with this :lol:

Of course, there's nothing really new in this update.

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

I was rebooting after a software update

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

By the way... By the way we in Russia have a lot of sites dicussing ufo and between-star flies.
>

Doesn't this belong in "Unexplained" ?

 

[Molodei]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

I have read about the project SpaceX Falcon and I saw the pictures. I was very pleased of this project and I suppose it is one of the best. I do not speak about "your" or "our" projects. As for me I see them both on http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru and on http://space.com The things I didn*t saw I take up and push to my site, to speake about with collegs. I think this matter is for professionals. Isn*t it ?
The project Falcon is surprised me. It was like a two Shattles together. Should you know we are use the simular classification of launches and rocket-delivers. I don*t know why we haven*t a one center of managing, may be of reason that some spesialists are outstanding.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

This forum is to discuss specific Missions and Launches, so this topic of discussion is the upcoming first Falcon 9 launch only.
Program type discussion takes place in the Space Business and Technology forum.

 

[job1207]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Ok, let's put this puppy all together now and send it up...!!!

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Someone posted a pic of Ares I-X at NSF and lookie what was in the background....

 

[mr_mark]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

My guess is that it's the stand up gantry we are looking at and not any rocket. The first stage just finished qualification and test firing at their Texas facility and it wouldn't be at the cape yet. Maybe it is some kind of load simulator attached to the gantry to test weight specs. That's just a guess. The rocket is due to be shipped to the cape in November as reported by Spacex.

 

[ms1]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

The launch site is lit up like a Christmas tree at night now... and there does appear to be a rocket there. I will take as good a pic as my meager zoom lens will allow.

 

[mr_mark]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Prediction: The first Falcon 9 flight will be a complete success with first stage burn, separation and complete second stage burn and shutdown. Shortly after the launch Elon Musk will claim that the Falcon 9 launcher is fully operational. Nasa won't even have decided to continue with Ares or start a new direction by then.

 

[mj1]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Will SpaceX be providing any live streaming for the F-9 lanuch? If anyone hears anything concerning that, please be sure to post it here.

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

They usually provide a link from their website the day before or early the day of the launch.

 

[mjbernier]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Sorry if I missed it earlier in the thread, but regarding the Dragon qualification unit: does anyone know if it is capable of performing any in-flight maneuvers or controlled re-entry, or is it more of a "boilerplate" model that has the physical structure but little to no actual operating hardware?

 

[mr_mark]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

The Dragon qualifation unit is fully flight ready as far as hard construction but will have no thrusters and no onboard flight systems. It will have sensors to measure in flight characteristics but that's about it. It will most likely not separate from the second stage.

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

The Dragon qualifation unit is fully flight ready as far as hard construction but will have no thrusters and no onboard flight systems. It will have sensors to measure in flight characteristics but that's about it. It will most likely not separate from the second stage.

Which returns us to the question of the quantification units maneuverability, but by other means.

A fully configured Falcon 9 2nd stage should have a complement of Draco's and can be restarted. Wonder if they'll make use of them to orient the Dragon, do a retro-burn, separate them then get the stage out of its way for de-orbit?

IF the Dragon and Falcon 9 2nd stage have real TPS's this should take care of the matter of testing the 2nd stages maneuverability (important for re-use) & restart, disposing of the Dragon appropriately and give them a re-entry test (possibly for both) in one bite.

Not announcing those goals prevents scrutiny in the immediate coverage (the most important part) if they don't go as expected.

Doing them successfully gives them a helluva PR surprise later (see NEAR Shoemaker) and, presuming they survive the trip down, a lot of engineering info if recovered.

Personally, if the hardware is near ready I'd give it a go without saying so beforehand. Little to lose but much potential gain from the PR and technical standpoints.

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Which returns us to the question of the quantification units maneuverability, but by other means.

A fully configured Falcon 9 2nd stage should have a complement of Draco's and can be restarted. Wonder if they'll make use of them to orient the Dragon, do a retro-burn, separate them then get the stage out of its way for de-orbit?

IF the Dragon and Falcon 9 2nd stage have real TPS's this should take care of the matter of testing the 2nd stages maneuverability (important for re-use) & restart, disposing of the Dragon appropriately and give them a re-entry test (possibly for both) in one bite.

Not announcing those goals prevents scrutiny in the immediate coverage (the most important part) if they don't go as expected.

Doing them successfully gives them a helluva PR surprise later (see NEAR Shoemaker) and, presuming they survive the trip down, a lot of engineering info if recovered.

Personally, if the hardware is near ready I'd give it a go without saying so beforehand. Little to lose but much potential gain from the PR and technical standpoints.

Isn’t Dragon supposed to be self-stabilizing in atmospheric flight? It seems to that you could be quite correct about maneuvering using the second stage. If successful it’ll be a PR coup, if they lose it they can just say they never intended to retrieve it.

 

[vattas]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

The launch site is lit up like a Christmas tree at night now... and there does appear to be a rocket there. I will take as good a pic as my meager zoom lens will allow.

F9 is supposed to be assembled horizontally and not on the pad. It's very unlikely that they already got it assembled and erected. So it's unlikely that you are seeing rocket there.

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Isn’t Dragon supposed to be self-stabilizing in atmospheric flight? It seems to that you could be quite correct about maneuvering using the second stage. If successful it’ll be a PR coup, if they lose it they can just say they never intended to retrieve it.

That's my understanding. Put her on the right trajectory and go for it. The 2nd stage would have to do an orientation and de-orbit burn to come in for re-use down the road anyhow, so for the cost of a bit of reprogramming you get some real world data on both systems.

 

[EasyLift]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Hello guys,

I have a question. On the spacex website they announced on Oct. 5 that they would do final firing tests of both the 1st stage AND the 2nd stage engines. But on the last update (in Oct. 21) they announced successful testing only for the 1st stage 9-engines, nothing about the 2nd stage... Should we worry about that ? Has anyone got more info on the status of the 2nd stage engine acceptance testing?

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

No, you should not worry about that. They tested the first stage and only then proceeded to the second stage. Different setups with the 2nd stage being a vacuum engine, so it's not just a matter of just bolting in the new stage.

 

[EasyLift]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

No, you should not worry about that. They tested the first stage and only then proceeded to the second stage. Different setups with the 2nd stage being a vacuum engine, so it's not just a matter of just bolting in the new stage.

Yeah, you are right when you write that the texas guys must be now working on the 2nd stage engine testing. I would have liked this to be stated on the last spacex update (Oct. 21). But they said nothing at all in respect to the 2nd stage, like if they prefered to keep low profil because something was not going as planned. Well, may be I am speculating too much... may be not... Let's see what they say in there next update.

 

[docm]

Re: Upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 Flight 1 Launch

Remember that they were very mum before the 1st stage test, then they had a weather hold.