It is now officially official as the awaited press release has been officially released:
As mentioned in my update last month, we do expect to conduct a launch countdown in late September as scheduled.
Having said that, it is still possible that we encounter an issue that needs to be investigated, which would delay launch until the next available window in late October. If preparations go smoothly, we will conduct a static fire on Saturday and launch sometime between Tuesday and Thursday (California time).
The SpaceX team worked hard to make this launch window, but we also took the time to review data from Flight 3 in detail. In addition to us reviewing the data, we had several outside experts check the data and conclusions. No flight critical problems were found apart from the thrust transient issue.
Flight 5 production is well underway with an expected January completion date, Flight 6 parts are on order and Flight 7 production will begin early next year. We are now in steady state production of Falcon 1 at a rate of one vehicle every four months, which we will probably step up to one vehicle every two to three months in 2010.
– Elon Musk
I will keep you informed as news comes in and if at all possible will live blog the launch from here on the other side of the planet from Kwaj as I have on each of the previous Falcon test flights.
Monday, Sep 22: The engine test was accomplished successfully over the weekend so we are on track to see a flight 4 launch attempt later this week
Tuesday, Sep 23: The flight is scheduled for today if you are in the US, or ‘tomorrow’ if you are where I sit. Window opens around 2300 UTC and runs until 0400 UTC. That will be afternoon or evening for US readers.
Tuesday, Sep 23: They are swapping out a component in the second stage and the launch is now note expected until Sunday, Sep 28 at the earliest. Current range usage window lasts until next Wed, October 1.
Dale,
Is one of these (4-7) the multi-engine platform? Or is that a separate numbering series?
This whole program reminds me of the antique adventure fiction I used to read as a kid where the heroes owned their own crafts. The day that an owner travels to space on his own private space ship is going to be a mile stone. It will mark a phase transition in the technology. Has E.M. expressed any intention to go in the foreseeable future?
Midwesterner:
This is just the Falcon 1, where the ‘1’ means a single Merlin regen engine. i love that choice of name for an engine 😉
The Falcon 9 will probably launch next year, but will fly out of Cape Canavaral. It would just be way to big for the tiny bit of coral reef they are using for Falcon 1. The new pad in Florida is already under construction I believe. I do know all the agreements were signed months ago.
Yes, Elon intends to fly. He is not the only one. The really big dark horse in the industry is Blue Origin, Jeff Bezo’s ultra secretive company. They appear to be building something very much in the tradition of the MacDonnell Douglas DC-X. Bezo’s long term goal includes Mars colonization, and he is playing a long game. He has set up the financing for his operation such that it can be essentially funded for as long as he cares to do so. He’s not running down his capital, only the income on his capital.
Elon is not in quite the same financial league. He has been burning his own capital at a high rate. He’s got some development contracts and launch contracts and also got another investor in this summer. I do know it is his intent to do a great deal more than put small satellites in orbit. They are already well along with work on their Dragon capsule.
I do not know about Burt Rutan, but I can say for certain that Branson is going up early on SpaceShipTwo. I have heard him claim he will fly the first commercial flight. We’ll see. I might add that a number of folk I know are going up on SS2.
Then there is Bob Bigelow. I cannot imagine that as an old hand at Real Estate and Hotels as well as a spacer like most of my crowd, he’ll find an excuse to visit his property in orbit. You just never know what your staff are getting up to unless you drop in yourself 😉
Virtually everyone in the New Space business is in it because as the old L5 slogan says “We Want To GO!”
I also know a few of our XCOR readers are going to be right seat data jockeys during early flights of the Lynx. I know I would not want to get between the Lynx entry hatch and Aleta! (Dale blows a kiss at Aleta)
Getting off planet is certainly why Jim Bennett, Rand Simberg and I are in the business! We just unfortunately do not have the large fortunes available to turn into small ones so we’re rather doing it the hard way. (Anyone got a spare can of tuna? 😉
The multi-engine one is called Falcon 9.
While Falcon 1 is a viable launcher in its own right, the real goal is Falcon 9, and Falcon 1 is largely regarded as a cheap way to test most of the things going into Falcon 9.
Note that the most recent failure was caused directly by using a new engine design intended for Falcon 9, rather than the engine used for the previous Falcon 1 tests. If they’d used the old design the launch would almost certainly have been successful, but they preferred (even in hindsight) to find the bugs in the latest engine.
“the next available window in late October”
Just wondering what makes these windows. Is it physics, logistics or politics?
“what makes these (launch) windows?”
Mr Buggins and his famous pet pig “Turn”
Dale
What about Orbital Sciences and their Taurus II ?
They say that they are will to fly in their own capsules, they havce a COTS contract and they think they can match Elon. We’ll see what they do.
Kwaj is an active military range. Not just outgoing either. I’ve seen some great photos of glowing trails of incoming RV’s from ICBM tests.
I would have to check my memory against fact, but I believe it has been involved in ABM testing over the last decade.
“what makes these (launch) windows?” Rob Fisher
For these launches where they are not chasing something like the International Space Station or going to a specific orbit like a sun synchronous one, launch windows are determined by range availability, and occasionally lighting. That is, they may not want to launch after dark. But mostly it is having the radar and range officers available, perhaps a tracking plane for photographs, and no one else trying to fly at the same time. If the were trying to match an existing orbit,like ISS, then physics would dominate and the range would have to be made to be available at the proper moment.
Thanks Comga — it was the lack of trying to rendezvous with some other object (match an existing orbit) that made me wonder.