SpaceX Targets Dec. 20 Maiden Flight

Falcon 1 on Launch Pad in Kwajalein

El Segundo, CA, Dec. 12, 2005/Satnews Daily/ — SpaceX has announced it is preparing for a December 20 launch date, pending the completion of the Missile Defense Agency test of its Falcon 1 rocket.

SpaceX said before the scheduled new launch date, the company would have accumulated substantial liquid oxygen (LOX) supplies to fill the rocket four or five times over. SpaceX scrubbed its first launch attempt on Nov. 26 because of loss of liquid oxygen and an engine computer problem.

On its first launch attempt, an auxiliary liquid oxygen (LOX) fill tank had a manual vent valve incorrectly set to vent. This caused a significant LOX boiloff and loss of helium, forcing launch controllers to abort the launch.

SpaceX said it chartered a C-17 to fly two of its empty high quality LOX containers to Hawaii, sourced another high quality LOX container on Hawaii, and put all three on the barge to Kwajalein. SpaceX added its LOX plant on Kwajalein has been repaired and is producing LOX on the island again.

SpaceX said it has also traced the engine computer reboot anomaly to a ground power problem. The company said the problem has been solved by slightly increasing voltage on the ground umbilical.

SpaceX launch controllers said the problem cropped up at Kwajalein Launch Pad because the higher load on the longer umbilical (three times longer than in prior tests) coupled with high temperatures in Kwajalein resulted in increased resistance in the ground umbilical. SpaceX said this was enough to lower the voltage below minimums and cause an engine computer reset when drawing maximum power. The same max power test was repeated on internal vehicle batteries with no problem at all, the company said.

Falcon 1 is a two-stage rocket powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene and is being billed as the first privately developed, liquid-fuelled rocket to reach orbit and the world's first all-new orbital rocket in more than a decade. At $6.7-million, Falcon 1 could be the lowest cost per flight to orbit of any launch vehicle, according to the company.

SpaceX said that on launch day, the Falcon 1 countdown to launch is expected to reach T-Zero. At that point, the hold-down clamps will release and the Falcon 1 rocket will begin its journey to orbit, accelerating to 17,000 mph (twenty-five times the speed of sound) in less than ten minutes.

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