Showing posts with label Falcon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Falcon. Show all posts
Monday, October 28, 2013
SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off from California
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gene BlevinsBy Irene KlotzVANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:15pm EDT
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services.
The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon EDT/1600 GMT.
The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, aiming toward an orbit that flies over Earth's poles. Perched on top of the rocket was a small science and communications satellite called Cassiope, built by MDA Corp of Canada.
The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics, new software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.
Privately owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.
Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.
SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.
SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.
The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.
Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gene BlevinsBy Irene KlotzVANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:22pm EDT
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.
The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).
The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.
"It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth," SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.
Nestled inside the rocket's new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX's now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.
"It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily," Musk said.
Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.
As an experiment, both of the rocket's two stages were restarted during flight.
Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon's first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.
"The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket," Musk said.
Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.
"The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle," Musk said.
The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.
Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.
Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.
SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.
SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.
Falcon 9's next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."
(Editing by Paul Simao)
Thursday, October 3, 2013
SpaceX Falcon 9 blasts off from California
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gene BlevinsBy Irene Klotz
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 1:15pm EDT
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades needed for planned commercial launch services.
The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon EDT/1600 GMT.
The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, aiming toward an orbit that flies over Earth's poles. Perched on top of the rocket was a small science and communications satellite called Cassiope, built by MDA Corp of Canada.
The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics, new software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.
Privately owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.
Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.
SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.
SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.
The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.
Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
SpaceX ready to test-fly new Falcon rocket
By Irene Klotz
LOS ANGELES | Fri Sep 27, 2013 6:39pm EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies plans to test an upgraded Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday from a site in California as part of its push into the satellite launch market.
Previous versions of the Falcon 9 have flown five times from the company's launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
If the new rocket's debut goes well, SpaceX plans to return to Florida for the Falcon 9's first commercial mission, an SES World Skies communications satellite, later this year.
Perched on top of the 22-story, beefed-up Falcon 9 will be Canada's Cassiope science satellite. Liftoff is targeted for 9 a.m. PDT (1600 GMT) from a newly refurbished launch site at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
"This is essentially a development flight for the rocket," company founder and chief executive Elon Musk told Reuters.
The Falcon 9 has previously flown three missions for NASA to the International Space Station and two test flights.
In addition to work for NASA, private companies and foreign governments, SpaceX is looking to break the monopoly United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big U.S. military satellites.
All five Falcon 9 flights have been successful, though during the fourth mission on October 7, 2012, one of the rocket's engines shut down early. The other motors compensated for the loss of power and the rocket's payload - a Dragon cargo capsule - reached the space station as planned.
Engines on the new Falcon 9 have 60 percent more power than their predecessors. The rocket, known as Falcon 9 v1.1, also sports bigger propellant tanks, upgraded avionics and software and other improvements to boost performance and simplify operations.
The company has a backlog of more than 50 missions to fly on the new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets, including 10 more cargo runs to the space station for NASA.
The company advertises Falcon 9 launch services for $56.5 million. Musk said he would like to discount that price by recycling and reusing the Falcon's first stage. Currently, the spent boosters splash down into the ocean and cannot be reused.
Toward that goal, SpaceX has been working on related program called Grasshopper to fly a booster back to its launch site. Engineers have not yet tested how the system would work over water, but they may get a trial run during Sunday's Falcon 9 flight.
"Just before we hit the ocean, we're going to relight the engine and see if we can mitigate the landing velocity to the point where the stage could potentially be recovered, but I give this maybe a 10 percent chance of success," Musk said.
Cassiope manufacturer, MDA Corp of Canada, originally contracted with SpaceX for a ride on its now-discontinued Falcon 1 rocket. Instead, SpaceX offered the firm a cut-rate price to fly on the new rocket's demonstration run.
"Cassiope is a very small satellite. It takes up just a tiny fraction of the volume of the fairing. They paid, I think, maybe 20 percent of the normal price of the mission," Musk said.
SpaceX has already won two U.S. Air Force contracts set aside for new launch service providers, but is eyeing the more lucrative missions currently flying on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets.
(Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from California
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying a small science satellite for Canada is seen as it is launched from a newly refurbished launch pad in Vandenberg Air Force Station September 29, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gene BlevinsBy Irene Klotz
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California | Sun Sep 29, 2013 9:22pm EDT
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California (Reuters) - An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from California on Sunday to test upgrades before commercial satellite launch services begin later this year.
The 22-story rocket, built and flown by Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, soared off a newly refurbished, leased launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Station at noon (1600 GMT).
The Falcon 9 blazed through clear blue skies out over the Pacific Ocean, its water vapor trail visible even as the rocket left the atmosphere.
"It went better than expected. It was incredibly smooth," SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters after the launch.
Nestled inside the rocket's new 17-foot (5-meter) diameter nose cone was a small Canadian science satellite called Cassiope that initially was to fly on SpaceX's now-discontinued Falcon 1 launcher in 2008.
"It's certainly a huge relief to have successfully delivered Cassiope to orbit. It's been weighing on me quite heavily," Musk said.
Cassiope, which is designed to monitor the space environment around Earth and serve as a communications satellite, and five secondary payloads were delivered into their intended orbits, Musk told reporters on a conference call.
As an experiment, both of the rocket's two stages were restarted during flight.
Musk is particularly interested in developing the technology to fly the Falcon's first stage back to the launch site or have it gently splash down in the water so its motors can be recovered, refurbished and reflown. Currently, after delivering their payloads into orbit, the boosters tumble back toward Earth and essentially explode mid-air before crashing into the sea.
"The most revolutionary thing about the new Falcon 9 is the potential ability to recover the boost phase, which is almost three-quarters of the cost of the rocket," Musk said.
Neither engine restart test went perfectly, but engineers were able to get enough data to plan on a demonstration flight next year.
"The most important thing is we now believe we have all the pieces of the puzzle," Musk said.
The upgraded Falcon 9 v1.1 has engines that are 60 percent more powerful than previous versions, longer fuel tanks, new avionics and software and other features intended to boost lift capacity and simplify operations for commercial service.
Privately-owned SpaceX has contracts for more than 50 launches of its new Falcon 9 and planned Falcon Heavy rockets.
Ten of those missions are to fly cargo to the International Space Station for NASA. The other customers are non-U.S. government agencies and commercial satellite operators.
SpaceX also has two contracts for small U.S. Air Force satellites but is looking to break the monopoly that United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has on flying big military satellites as well.
SpaceX already has flown three Dragon capsules to the station and made two other successful test flights with its older version Falcons.
Falcon 9's next mission is to put a communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies. The launch is targeted for next month from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"We accomplished a lot today," Musk said. "We have a little bit of work to do obviously, but all-in-all I think it's been a great day."
(Editing by Paul Simao)
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