Falcon 9 could soar from Cape next year

Florida Today
September 20, 2007
By John Kelly

 

 

A heavier-lift version of a new American-made rocket could launch from a former Titan pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as early as next year.

The first Falcon 9, which is similar in scale to United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 and Atlas 5 rockets, is scheduled to be erected on dormant pad 40 next fall. A launch could come within months, according to Space Exploration Technologies chief executive officer Elon Musk.

Musk acknowledged that schedule delays are not unusual in development of a new launch vehicle and it is too early to commit to a specific target date for liftoff of the new U.S. launcher. Still, the rocket is in production and testing and the plans remain on track for late next year.

"It's hard to say where the launch will occur because we will launch when we're ready, not based on some arbitrary time," Musk said Wednesday during a presentation at the Space 2007 conference in Long Beach, Calif.

The tanks, engines and other components of the larger version of the company's new rocket are under construction at its facility in El Segundo, Calif. Test firings at a Texas facility are on track as well.

So far, the company has launched two of its Falcon 1 rockets from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The first vehicle barely got off the launch pad before failing and the second failed to reach its target orbit because of a gas bubble that caused an early engine shutdown. A third Falcon 1 launch is planned for early next year.

The larger rocket will use many of the same components being tested on the smaller vehicle. For instance, the Falcon 9 first stage will utilize nine of the SpaceX developed Merlin engines. One of the engines is used in the smaller rocket.

The progress so far has inspired enough confidence that the company has sold 14 launch contracts to date for its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 vehicles. The first two flights were bought by the U.S. military. Most of the remaining 12 launches purchased, all of which are scheduled to occur by 2010, are under contracts with the government. Almost half are scheduled for the Cape.

The company's goal is to offer launch vehicles at a fraction of the cost of U.S. competitors. Musk estimated Wednesday the Falcon 9 would be sold for about one-third what a customer would pay for a ride on an equivalent vehicle offered by United Launch Alliance, although the comment drew skepticism from some of the hundreds assembled in the conference audience.

The company recently landed a contract to launch a satellite to geosynchronous orbit for Avanti Communications, a British company that also considered European and Russian launch vehicles before choosing the yet-to-fly Falcon 9. Musk pointed to that and other contracts as proof that the industry believes SpaceX is on track.

"The acid test for credibility is customers buying the rockets," Musk said in response to a series of skeptical questions about whether his schedule and public statements are realistic.

"There are some people out there who believe in us, and there are some who do not," Musk said, "but if they're not buying rockets, it doesn't really matter."