SpaceX Updates

[Swampcat]

Good catch, Boris.

I looked around a couple weeks ago for some indication of when this launch would occur and found nothing that wasn't outdated.

 

[The_Chef]

Over on NASA Space Flight Forum, one of the Rocket Scientists claimed he was at a luncheon today & a Rep from SpaceX announced the Falcon 1 Flight 5 rocket was shipped out to Kwaj this morning with a late April target launch date.

 

[The_Chef]

Anybody remember jimfromnsf? Over on NASA Space Flight Forum he's claiming he has heard April 20th is the targeted launch date for Falcon 1 Launch 5. This probably reliable as Jim does have some good sources of inside info.

 

[The_Chef]

SpaceX Falcon 9 Upper Stage Engine Successfully Completes Full Mission Duration Firing

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show ... 4890.shtml

 

[mr_mark]

SPACEX FALCON 9 UPPER STAGE ENGINE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES FULL MISSION DURATION FIRING
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New Merlin Vacuum engine demonstrates highest efficiency for an American hydrocarbon rocket engine.







McGregor, TX. – March 10, 2009 – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully conducted a full mission duration firing of its new Merlin Vacuum engine on March 7, at SpaceX's Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. The engine fired for a full six minutes, consuming 100,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene propellant.

The new engine, which powers the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle, demonstrated a vacuum specific impulse of 342 seconds – the highest efficiency ever for an American hydrocarbon rocket engine. Thrust was measured at approximately 92,500 lb of force in vacuum conditions and the engine remained thermally stable over the entire run.

“Specific impulse, or Isp, indicates how efficiently a rocket engine converts propellant into thrust,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “With a vacuum Isp of 342 seconds, the new Merlin Vacuum engine has exceeded our requirements, setting a new standard for American hydrocarbon engine performance in space.”

Based on the Merlin 1C engine that boosted the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket to orbit in 2008, the Merlin Vacuum engine uses a regeneratively cooled combustion chamber. However, the vacuum engine features a larger exhaust section than the Merlin 1C and a much larger radiatively cooled expansion nozzle, in order to maximize performance in the vacuum of space.

The Merlin Vacuum engine provides the final push that delivers customer spacecraft into their desired orbits. A redundant ignition system ensures the engine can shut down and restart multiple times. The engine can also operate at a reduced thrust to achieve optimum performance. During recent tests, the engine was successfully throttled down to 75 percent of maximum thrust, and upcoming tests will demonstrate throttling to approximately 60 percent of maximum thrust.

“Falcon 9 was designed from the ground up to provide our customers with breakthrough advances in reliability,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “In successfully adapting our flight tested first stage engine for use on the second stage, this recent test further validates the architecture of Falcon 9, designed to provide customers with high reliability at a fraction of traditional costs.”

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft were recently selected by NASA to resupply cargo to the International Space Station after the shuttle retires in 2010. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 is scheduled for later this year from SpaceX's launch pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

[mr_mark]

While alot of private companies are making big announcements as to what they might do in the future, Spacex continues to build on it's development quietly almost without notice by the public. Todays firing of the merlin second stage motor is just another step towards a long and prosperous future.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Indeed. They are methodically making more progress than almost anyone else in the launch sector. I can't wait for the next test flight!

 

[js117]

SPACEX FALCON 9 UPPER STAGE ENGINE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETES FULL MISSION DURATION FIRING
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


New Merlin Vacuum engine demonstrates highest efficiency for an American hydrocarbon rocket engine.







McGregor, TX. – March 10, 2009 – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully conducted a full mission duration firing of its new Merlin Vacuum engine on March 7, at SpaceX's Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. The engine fired for a full six minutes, consuming 100,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene propellant.

The new engine, which powers the upper stage of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle, demonstrated a vacuum specific impulse of 342 seconds – the highest efficiency ever for an American hydrocarbon rocket engine. Thrust was measured at approximately 92,500 lb of force in vacuum conditions and the engine remained thermally stable over the entire run.

“Specific impulse, or Isp, indicates how efficiently a rocket engine converts propellant into thrust,” said Tom Mueller, Vice President of Propulsion for SpaceX. “With a vacuum Isp of 342 seconds, the new Merlin Vacuum engine has exceeded our requirements, setting a new standard for American hydrocarbon engine performance in space.”

Based on the Merlin 1C engine that boosted the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket to orbit in 2008, the Merlin Vacuum engine uses a regeneratively cooled combustion chamber. However, the vacuum engine features a larger exhaust section than the Merlin 1C and a much larger radiatively cooled expansion nozzle, in order to maximize performance in the vacuum of space.

The Merlin Vacuum engine provides the final push that delivers customer spacecraft into their desired orbits. A redundant ignition system ensures the engine can shut down and restart multiple times. The engine can also operate at a reduced thrust to achieve optimum performance. During recent tests, the engine was successfully throttled down to 75 percent of maximum thrust, and upcoming tests will demonstrate throttling to approximately 60 percent of maximum thrust.

“Falcon 9 was designed from the ground up to provide our customers with breakthrough advances in reliability,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “In successfully adapting our flight tested first stage engine for use on the second stage, this recent test further validates the architecture of Falcon 9, designed to provide customers with high reliability at a fraction of traditional costs.”

SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft were recently selected by NASA to resupply cargo to the International Space Station after the shuttle retires in 2010. The inaugural flight of Falcon 9 is scheduled for later this year from SpaceX's launch pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Here is the link on spacex to see the Engine test. This link was posted on NASAspaceflight.com by ugordan
http://www.spacex.com/multimedia/videos ... cat=recent

 

[The_Chef]

RazakSAT launch on April 21

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi ... sec=nation

 

[maxqueue]

Anybody remember jimfromnsf? Over on NASA Space Flight Forum he's claiming he has heard April 20th is the targeted launch date for Falcon 1 Launch 5. This probably reliable as Jim does have some good sources of inside info.

Of course it is reliable

 

[MeteorWayne]

Why of course? His reliability record was mixed here....

 

[maxqueue]

Why of course? His reliability record was mixed here....

He was a PITA here but not wrong

 

[The_Chef]

Anybody remember jimfromnsf? Over on NASA Space Flight Forum he's claiming he has heard April 20th is the targeted launch date for Falcon 1 Launch 5. This probably reliable as Jim does have some good sources of inside info.

Of course it is reliable

Welcome back Jim. :mrgreen:

 

[rubicondsrv]

Anybody remember jimfromnsf? Over on NASA Space Flight Forum he's claiming he has heard April 20th is the targeted launch date for Falcon 1 Launch 5. This probably reliable as Jim does have some good sources of inside info.

Of course it is reliable

Welcome back Jim. :mrgreen:

If maxqueue is jim, his time here will be short.

soon it will be time to say goodbye jim

 

[The_Chef]

The SpaceX Launch Manifest has had some changes.

http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

There have been 2 Falcon 1E's added in addition to some shuffling.

 

[mr_mark]

There's new pics of the Falcon 1 flight 5 at http://www.spacex.com showing the first stage and the rocket being shipped out for assembly and launch.

 

[Swampcat]

Thanks, mr_mark.

Direct link to Updates page.

 

[Swampcat]

Spaceflight Now has the story.

SpaceX announces plans for next Falcon 1 launch

"Parts of SpaceX's next Falcon 1 rocket are en route to the booster's remote island launch site for the company's first commercial mission due for liftoff on April 20.

"SpaceX shipped the rocket's first stage last week to Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, according to an update posted on the company's Web site.

"The Falcon 1's second stage will be shipped to Kwajalein on a cargo plane in the next few weeks, according to SpaceX.

"Officials are targeting a launch date of April 20, U.S. time, the company said. The launch would occur on April 21 at Kwajalein.

"RazakSAT includes a medium-sized aperture camera with black-and-white and color bands. The imager is designed to reach spatial resolutions of about 8.2 feet and 16.4 feet in black-and-white and color modes, respectively."

More at the link.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Cool. Thanx for the update....only a month away. I'm excited!

 

[aaron38]

So SpaceX will have another flight of the Falcon 1 under their belt before they launch the Falcon 9, as there's been no mention of that launch date yet. They probably want to fly the upgraded second stage vacuum Merlin on the little guy first. Can't say I blame them.

 

[docm]

They probably want to fly the upgraded second stage vacuum Merlin on the little guy first. Can't say I blame them.

Nice theory, but the F1's second stage uses the Kestrel engine.

Wikipedia Kestrel article....

 

[Boris_Badenov]

Malaysian satellite arrives at Marshall Islands launch site
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009- ... 058929.htm

 

[ThereIWas2]

Haha, yes. The Merlin has about 20-times the thrust of the Kestrel.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hawthorne, CA (March 30, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces that the launch window for ATSB's RazakSAT on Falcon 1 Flight 5, is currently scheduled to open Monday, April 20th at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) / 7:00 p.m. (EDT).

SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site is located approximately 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific. Due to the location of the launch site, the Kwajalein local date at the opening of the launch window will be April 21st.

RazakSAT was designed and built by Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd (ATSB), a pioneer and leader in the design and manufacture of satellites in Malaysia. The satellite will be launched aboard the Falcon 1, a two-stage, liquid oxygen/rocket-grade kerosene vehicle, designed from the ground up by SpaceX.

Falcon 1 will place RazakSAT, equipped with a high resolution Medium-Sized Aperture Camera (MAC), into a near equatorial orbit. The payload is expected to provide high resolution images of Malaysia that can be applied to land management, resource development and conservation, forestry and fish migration.

SpaceX will provide live coverage of the Falcon 1 Flight 5/RazakSAT mission via webcast at: www.SpaceX.com. The webcast will begin 20 minutes prior to launch and will include mission briefings, live feeds and launch coverage from the launch site. Post-launch, video footage and photos will be available for download on the Web site.

 

[mr_mark]

I see that Spacex's pic posts are back to slow again. I thought they would put some stage 2 pics up from their factory at least. Maybe they don't realize how excited we all are for them and are wishing them the best in their upcoming launch of Facon 1 flight 5. I'm sure they will give us some assembled rocket pics once the rocket has gone to the island.