SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launch update

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henry

05 June, 2010

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched recently at Cape Canaveral, on Friday, June 4, 2010 as the company received their final clearance from the U.S. Air Force.

THE SPACE X Falcon 9 rocket is ready for launch from Cape Canaveral as the company received their final clearance from the U.S. Air Force. The launch window was from from 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EDT (1500 and 1900 GMT).

The commercial space company will send its two-stage 180-foot (55 meter)-high rocket to space, carrying a mock-up of their Dragon capsule, and if successful, will pave the way for cargo flights – and maybe even crewed flights — to the International Space Station for NASA.

Space Exploration Technologies' CEO Elon Musk told the reporters on Thursday that the maiden flight probably has a 70 percent to 80 percent chance of succeeding.

"However, I should point out that is less than the probability of success in Russian roulette," Musk said. "Remember that scene from 'The Deer Hunter?' That's tomorrow. But not quite as likely."

But, Musk added, "Everyone at this point feels pretty confident. There's very little we can do to improve the rocket as far as reliability is concerned. We've done everything we could possibly think of."

The importance of this flight test is not lost on anyone at SpaceX or the space community, as NASA's new plan rolled out by President Obama depends largely on the success of commercial space companies. The space shuttles are being retired and many wonder about NASA's dependence on yet-untested commercial companies to ferry supplies and astronauts to space.

SpaceX DragonLab- a free-flying, fully-recoverable, reusable spacecraft capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads.

SpaceX has not provided many details about the flight path, but the rocket is hoped to climb to a 250 km (155 mile) -high circular orbit tilted at 34.5 degrees to the equator.

SpaceX has launched smaller versions of the Falcon rocket, and it took four tries for the first success.
If all goes well, SpaceX plans to fly up to three Falcon 9/Dragon test missions for NASA, before starting cargo deliveries – maybe by next year — to the ISS, part of a $1.6 billion contract.

The other company that NASA is depending on Orbital Sciences Corp, which plans to debut its Taurus 2 rocket in 2011. NASA has a $1.9 billion station resupply contract with that company.