Falcon 1 : quatrième tentative (28/09/2008)

Low-cost rocket finally gets to orbit
After three failed attempts, SpaceX Falcon 1 succeeds in test launch



The SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket rises from its launch pad on Omelek Island in Kwajalein Atoll, sending a test payload into orbit on Sunday.


After three unsuccessful tries, SpaceX launched its two-stage Falcon 1 rocket into orbit for the first time on Sunday — potentially changing the cost equation for spaceflight.

"That was frickin' awesome," Elon Musk, SpaceX's millionaire founder, told cheering employees at the six-year-old company's headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.

"There were a lot of people who thought we couldn't do it ... but as the saying goes, 'The fourth time's the charm,'" he said after the rocket soared into orbit from its launch pad on Omelek Island, 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

The launch and ascent were broadcast live on the Web, from cameras positioned on the ground as well on the rocket itself.

The launch company's first undisputed success came after an oh-so-close failure on Aug. 2, when the timing was off on the shutdown of the Falcon 1's first-stage engine. Instead of separating cleanly, the first stage bumped into the second stage and knocked it off course. That led to the loss of three satellites, including a NASA prototype solar sail and small experimental satellites from NASA as well as the Defense Department.

This time around, the 70-foot-tall (21-meter-tall) rocket was carrying only a 364-pound (165-kilogram) dummy payload. Musk said the second stage and the attached payload successfully entered a 206-by-406-mile (330-by-650 kilometer) orbit that loops higher than the international space station.

"Falcon 1 has made history as the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach orbit from the ground," launch commentator Max Vozoff declared after receiving word that the Falcon 1's second-stage Kestrel engine had cut off successfully.

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Various factors were behind SpaceX's previous three failures, but Musk persevered, spending more than $100 million of the fortune he gained in the dot-com rush as a founder of the PayPal online payment system. After last month's failure, Musk announced that he was taking on outside investment for the first time, from

The South African native founded SpaceX to follow through on his vision of helping humanity become a multiplanet species, and in Sunday's remarks to employees, he said the technologies pioneered by Falcon 1 could eventually bring humans to Mars.

"It's just the tip of the iceberg here," Musk said.

The kerosene-fueled Falcon 1 is notable for its price tag: roughly $7 million, which is around an order of magnitude lower than the typical cost of an orbital launch. The rocket's first stage is designed to be recovered and reused after each launch, theoretically reducing the expense.

Customers have been lining up already to reserve launch dates for the Falcon 1 and the company's more powerful Falcon 9, which is still under development. NASA is providing $278 million for the Falcon 9 project under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS, in hopes that the rocket could help transport cargo to the international space station after the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, which is currently scheduled for 2010.

The first Falcon 9 is due to be delivered to Cape Canaveral, Fla., by the end of this year. Sunday's success will likely boost confidence that SpaceX can meet the COTS schedule.

© 2008 MSNBC Interactive

SPACEX SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES FALCON 1 TO ORBIT

HAWTHORNE, CA – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announces that Flight 4 of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle has successfully launched and achieved Earth orbit. With this key milestone, Falcon 1 becomes the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.

"This is a great day for SpaceX and the culmination of an enormous amount of work by a great team," said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. "The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion—middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake."

Falcon 1, designed from the ground up by SpaceX, lifted off at 4:15 p.m. (PDT) / 23:15 (UTC) from the Reagan Test Site (RTS) on Omelek Island at the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific, about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

Preliminary data indicates that Falcon 1 achieved an elliptical orbit of 500 km by 700 km, 9.2 degrees inclination—exactly as targeted.

Falcon 1 carried into orbit a payload mass simulator of approximately 165 kg (364 lbs), designed and built by SpaceX, specifically for this mission. Consisting of a hexagonal aluminum alloy chamber 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, the payload remains attached to the second stage as it orbits Earth.

This was the fourth launch of the Falcon 1 launch vehicle and second flight for the new SpaceX-developed Merlin 1C regeneratively-cooled engine. A "hold before liftoff" system was used to enhance reliability by permitting all launch systems to be verified as functioning nominally before launch was initiated. A single SpaceX-developed Kestrel engine powered the Falcon 1 second stage.

For more information about the Falcon family of vehicles, and to watch the archived video of the Falcon 1, Flight 4 launch, visit the SpaceX website at www.spacex.com



About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally-developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions.

As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. NASA also has an option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS using the Falcon 9 / Dragon system. SpaceX is the only COTS contender that has the capability to return pressurized cargo and crew to Earth. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site (complex 40) at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008 in preparation for its maiden flight in 2009.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 550, located primarily in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations: SpaceX's Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific

http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20080928

Yantar a écrit:

Mustard l'image en page d'accueil, c'est une démo de Falcon 9 et non celui de la nuit passée :oops:

patchfree a écrit:J'ai regardé la vidéo (très beau!) et je me pose des questions: c'est quoi toutes ces merdes qui se tirent pendant le vol dans le vide?

Je m'attendais pas à voir tous ces "débris" et le rougeoiement de la tuyère est impressionnant...