Falcon I

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{{Infobox rocket|image = SpaceX falcon Washington DC.jpg|caption = Falcon 1 rocket in front of the FAA building in Washington DC.]|manufacturer = SpaceX|alt-height = 70 [foot (unit of length)|diameter = 1.7 m|alt-diameter = 5.5 ft|mass = 38,555 kilogram|alt-mass = 85,000 pound (mass)|stages = 2|LEO-payload =670 kg|alt-LEO = 1480 lb|payload-location = Sun synchronous orbit|payload = 430 kg|alt-payload = 990 lb|status = Active|sites = Omelek Island
Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3 Vandenberg AFB
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 36 Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|launches = 2|fail = 2|first = March 24, 2006
22:30 GMT|stage1thrust = 454 [newton|alt-stage1thrust = 102,000 pound-force|stage1SI = 255 s sea level
(2.6 kN·s/kg)|stage1time = 169 seconds|stage1fuel = RP-1/LOX|stage2thrust = 31 kN|alt-stage2thrust = 7,000 lbf|stage2SI = 327 s [vacuum
(3.2 kN·s/kg))|stage2time = 378 seconds|stage2fuel = RP-1/LOX-->The Falcon 1 is a partially reusable launch system, designed and manufactured by SpaceX, a space transportation startup company founded by entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk to provide commercial launch-to-space services. The two-stage-to-orbit rocket uses liquid oxygen/RP-1 for both stages, the first powered by a single Merlin (rocket engine) engine and the second powered by a single Kestrel (rocket engine) engine.

Two test launches of the Falcon 1 have been conducted in 2006 and 2007, neither of which achieved orbit. According to SpaceX the second test launch was in their view however largely successful and Falcon 1 will now obtain operational status.

Design, components and launch sequence According to SpaceX the Falcon 1 is designed to minimize price per launch for low Earth orbit satellites, increase reliability, optimize flight environment and time to launch. It is also intended to verify components and structural design concepts that will be reused in the Falcon 9.

At launch of the vehicle, the main engine of the first stage (Merlin) is ignited and throttled to full power while the launcher is restrained and all systems are verified by the flight computer. If the systems are operating correctly, the rocket is released and clears the tower in about seven seconds. The first-stage burn lasts about 2:49 minutes. Stage separation is accomplished with explosive bolts and a pneumatically actuated pusher system. The first stage returns by parachute to a water landing and is recovered for reuse, while the second stage is not reusable. The second stage with its Kestrel engine is ignited after stage separation and burns for another six minutes and inserts the payload into a low Earth orbit.

First stage engine.The first stage is made from friction stir welding aluminum alloy. It employs a common bulkhead between the LOX and RP-1 tanks, as well as flight pressure stabilization. It can be transported safely without pressurization (like the heavier Delta II isogrid design) but gains additional strength when pressurized for flight (like the Atlas II, which cannot be transported unpressurized). The resulting design has the highest mass fraction of any current first stage. The parachute system, built by Irvin Parachute Corporation, uses a high-speed drogue chute and a main chute. Due to problems with LOX boil-off during the launch of the first vehicle, future vehicles are expected to have foam insulation applied to the exterior of the LOX tank.

Second stage The second stage tanks are built with a cryogenic-compatible aluminum–lithium alloy. The helium pressurization system pumps propellant to the engine, supplies pressurized gas for the attitude control thrusters, and is used for zero-g ullage engine prior to engine restart. The pressure tanks are made by Arde corporation and are the same as those used in the Delta IV rocket. They consist of an inconel shell wrapped by a composite material.

Launcher versions {| class="wikitable"|-! width="25%" | Version! width="25%" | Falcon 1 ! width="25%" | Falcon 1 ! width="25%" | Falcon 1 |-| Stage 0| —| —| —|-| Stage 1| 1 × Merlin (rocket engine)| 1 × Merlin (rocket engine)| 1 × Merlin (rocket engine)|-| Stage 2| 1 × Kestrel (rocket engine)| 1 × Kestrel (rocket engine)| 1 × Kestrel (rocket engine)|-| Height(max; metre)|align="right"| 21.3|align="right"| 22.25|align="right"| 26.83|-| Diameter(metre)|align="right"| 1.7|align="right"| 1.7|align="right"| 1.7|-| Initial thrust(Newton)|align="right"| 318|align="right"| 343|align="right"| 454|-| Takeoff weight(tonnes)])|align="right"| 1.5|align="right"| 1.71|align="right"| 1.71|-| Payload(Low Earth orbit; kilogram)|align="right"| 570 (or less to SSO)])|align="right"| 700 (or 430 to SSO)]; kilogram)|align="right"| —|align="right"| —|align="right"| —|-| Price(Mil. United States dollar)|align="right"| 6.7|align="right"| 7|align="right"| 8.5|-| minimal Price/kg(Low Earth orbit; United States dollar)|align="right"| 11,754|align="right"| 15,556|align="right"| 12,687 or 19,767 to SSO; [United States dollar)|align="right"| —|align="right"| —|align="right"| —|-| Success ratio(successful/total)|align="right"| 0/2|align="right"| —|align="right"| —|}

Launch log {| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%; background: #F9F9F9; border: 1px #AAA solid; border-collapse: collapse;"|- bgcolor="#FFDEAD"! Flight No! Date & Time (GMT)! Launch Site! Payload/Customer! Outcome! Remarks] 2006, 22:30
(25 March, 09:30 local)]| Falconsat/DARPA| Failure| Engine failure at T+25 seconds
loss of vehicle; payload recovered|-|2|21 March 2007 01:10
(13:10 local)]|DemoSat/DARPA] at T+5 minutes
Premature engine shutdown at T+7 min 30 s
Failed to reach orbit
Failed to recover first stage
Claimed to be a "Partial success" as it gathered enough data for operational flights|-|colspan="6"|Scheduled Launches|-|| First Quarter 2008| [TacSat-1/OSD
Celestis/Celestis| Scheduled||-|| First Quarter 2008| [Razaksat/ATSB (Malaysia)
CubeSats/[CalPoly| [Vandenberg AFB| Scheduled||-|| Third Quarter [2009| Unknown/MDA Corporation| Scheduled||-|| Fourth Quarter [2009| Unknown/Swedish Space Corp.| Scheduled||-|}

Launches First test flight engine on fire during launch of the first Falcon 1 flight.{|style="border-collapse: collapse; float:right;width:250px; clear:right; border:1px #aaa solid; background: #f9f9f9;margin:0 0 0.5em 1em;"| style="padding:4px;"|ImageSize = width:250 height:365PlotArea = width:50 height:300 left:50 bottom:50DateFormat = yyyy

Period = from:-150 till:600TimeAxis = orientation:vertical order:reverseScaleMajor = unit:year increment:60 start:-120

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Legend = columns:1 left:20 top:40 columnwidth:100

BackgroundColors = canvas:canvas

Define $dx = 25 # shift text to right side of bar

PlotData=bar:Leaders color:Bar width:25 mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:s

from:start till:-120 shift:($dx,2) text:[Merlin (rocket engine) on internal power. from:-120 till:-45 shift:($dx,12) text:Internal sequencer engages. from:-45 till:-30 shift:($dx,3) text:Tank pressurization. from:-30 till:0 shift:($dx,1) text:Helium spin-up of turbine. from:0 till:0 shift:($dx,-4) text:"Ignition." color:S1 from:0 till:7 shift:($dx,-15) text:"Falcon 1 clears pad (7 s)." color:S1 from:7 till:76 shift:($dx,-20) text:"Qmax." color:S1 from:76 till:169 shift:($dx,-20) text:"[MECO, stage sep. (169, 170 s)." color:S1 from:169 till:170 shift:($dx,-12) text:"[Kestrel (rocket engine) ignition (174 s)." color:S2 from:170 till:194 shift:($dx,-18) text:"[fairing separation (194 s)." color:S2 from:194 till:552 shift:($dx,-5) text:"Second-stage burn." color:S2 from:552 till:553 shift:($dx,-1) text:"Kestrel shut down (553 s)." color:S2 from:553 till:570 shift:($dx,-9) text:[Satellite deployment (570 s). from:570 till:600 shift:($dx,-12) text:Re-ignition (demonstration). |-| style="padding:4px;font-size:90%;"|Launch sequence (maiden flight example);
time scale is in seconds.|}

The maiden flight of the Falcon 1 was launched on Saturday, 24 March 2006 at 22:30 UTC. It ended in failure about a minute into the flight due to a fuel line leak and subsequent fire. The launch took place from the SpaceX spaceport at Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands.

The launch was postponed several times due to various technical issues with the new vehicle. Scheduling conflicts with a Titan IV launch at Vandenburg also caused delays and resulted in the launch moving to the Reagan Test Site in the Kwajalein Atoll. The first launch attempt on 19 December 2005 was scrubbed when a faulty valve caused a vacuum in the first stage fuel tank which sucked inward and caused structural damage. After replacing the first stage, Falcon 1 launched Saturday, 25 March 2006 at 09:30 UTC+12. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency payload was the United States Air Force Academy’s FalconSAT, which would have measured space plasma (physics) phenomena.

The vehicle had a noticeable rolling motion after liftoff, as shown on the launch video, rocking back and forth a bit, and then at T+26 seconds rapidly pitched over. Impact occurred at T+41 seconds onto a dead reef about 250 feet from the launch site. The FalconSAT payload separated from the booster and landed on the island, with damage reports varying from slight to significant.

SpaceX initially attributed the fire to an improperly tightened fuel-line nut. A later review by DARPA found that the nut was properly tightened, since its locking wire was still in place, but had failed due to corrosion.

SpaceX implemented numerous changes to the rocket design and software to prevent this type of failure from reoccurring, including stainless steel to replace aluminum hardware and pre-liftoff computer checks that increased by a factor of thirty.

Second test flight Events leading to launch The second test flight was originally scheduled for January, but was delayed due to problems with the second stage. Before the January launch date, SpaceX had stated earlier potential launch dates, moving from September 2006 to November and December. In December the launch was rescheduled for 9 March, but delayed because of range availability issues caused by a Minuteman III test flight which would re-enter over Kwajelen. The launch attempt on 19 March was delayed 45 minutes from 23:00 GMT due to a data relay issue, and then scrubbed one minute and two seconds before launch at 23:45 due to a computer issue, whereby the safety computer incorrectly detected a transmission failure due to a hardware delay of a few milliseconds in the process. The 20 March attempt was delayed 65 minutes, from an originally planned time of 23:00 due to a problem with communications between one of the NASA experiments in the payload, and the TDRS system.

The launch attempt on March 21, 2007 was aborted at 00:05 GMT at the last second before launch and after the engine had ignited. It was however decided that another launch should be made the same day. The rocket was launched successfully at 01:10 GMT on 21 March 2007 with a DemoSat payload for DARPA and NASA. The rocket performed well during the first stage burn. However, during staging, the interstage fairing on the top of the first stage bumped the second stage engine bell. The bump occurred as the second stage nozzle exited the interstage, with the first stage rotating much higher than expected (a rotation rate of about 2.5 deg/s vs. expected rate of 0.5 deg/s maximum), thereby making contact with the niobium nozzle of the second stage. Elon Musk reported that the bump did not appear to have caused damage, and that the reason why they chose a niobium skirt instead of Reinforced carbon-carbon was to prevent problematic damage in the event of such incidents. Shortly after second stage ignition, a stabilization ring detached from the engine bell as designed. At around T+4:20, a circular coning oscillation began that increased in amplitude until video was lost. At T+5:01, the vehicle started to roll and telemetry ended. According to Elon Musk, the second stage engine shut down at T+7.5 minutes due to a roll control issue. Sloshing of propellant in the LOX tank increased oscillation. This oscillation would normally have been dampened by the Thrust Vector Control system in the second stage, but the bump to the second nozzle during separation caused an overcompensation in the correction. The rocket continued to within one minute of its desired location, and also managed to deploy the satellite mass simulator ring. While the webcast video ended prematurely, SpaceX was able to retrieve telemetry for the entire flight. The status of the first stage is unknown; it was not recovered due to problems with a nonfunctioning GPS tracking device. The rocket reached a final altitude of 289 km (156 miles) and a final velocity of 5.1 km/s, compared to 7.5 km/s needed for orbit.

SpaceX reaction and proposed remedy of problems SpaceX characterized the test flight as a success, having Technology Readiness Level over 95% of Falcon 1's systems. Their primary objectives for this launch were to test responsive launch procedures and gather data. According to Musk, the SpaceX team intends to have both a diagnosis and solution vetted by third party experts. Musk believes the slosh issue can be corrected by adding baffles to the second stage LOX tank and adjusting the control logic. Furthermore, the Merlin shutdown transient can be addressed by initiating shutdown at a much lower thrust level, albeit at some risk to engine reusability. The SpaceX team intends to work the problem to avoid a reoccurrence as they change over into the operational phase for Falcon 1.

Further missions The third flight will also be from Omelek, carrying the United States Naval Research Laboratory TacSat-1. This will be the first "operational" flight of Falcon 1. This mission was originally scheduled for 2005, from Vandenberg AFB, but delays due to the Titan launch, and problems with the rocket pushed it into mid-2006. It was then delayed further, as the failure of the maiden flight necessitated a second test mission. It is currently scheduled for the first quarter of 2008. This flight is also scheduled to carry a space burial payload including cremated remains of James Doohan, Gordon Cooper, and others.)

Private funding The Falcon 1 rocket is a largely privately funded and developed orbital launch vehicle. The only other orbital launch vehicle, that has been claimed to be privately funded and developed is the Pegasus (rocket) first launched in 1990. Orbital Sciences, the manufacturer and operator of the Pegasus claims that it is the first privately developed rocket able to reach orbit. Other sources have claimed that the Falcon 1 is the first privately funded orbital space vehicle that would be capable of reaching orbit.

While the development of Falcon 1 was privately funded, both Falcon 1 test launches have been paid for by the U.S. Deparment of Defense under a program that evaluates new US launch vehicles suitable for use by DARPA.

Pricing SpaceX is one of the few launch system operators that communicate launch prices to the public. Falcon 1 has been advertised as costing $5.9 million as early as 2005. In 2006 until 2007 the quoted price of the rocket when operational was $6.7 million. Most recently SpaceX has announced new prices for the Falcon 1 and an enhanced Falcon 1e, which should go operational in 2009. The price for Falcon 1 is now set at $7 million and the price for Falcon 1e at $8.5 million. SpaceX notes that small discounts may be available for multi-launch contracts.

Launch sites The Falcon 1 can be launched from five different sites, with the first two flights lifting off from Kwajalein.

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Pad 3W

: Elon Musk has reportedly said the Air Force may evict SpaceX from its Vandenberg launch site because of safety concerns expressed by United Launch Alliance, which launches the Atlas V rocket from a neighboring launch site at Vandenberg AFB Space Launch Complex 3. {{cite web | url = http://www.space.com/spacenews/archive05/Falcon_010906.html | title = SpaceX To Try Again Feb. 9| publisher = Space News-->

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40.
Kwajalein (Omelek Island), part of the Reagan Test Site
Kodiak Launch Complex
Wallops Flight Facility

Notes External links

SpaceX Falcon 1 details page
Space Services Inc. space burial page
Maiden launch details at SpaceFlightNow
Damage puts first SpaceX rocket launch on hold, Spaceflight Now, 19 December 2005

Vandenberg Air Force Base, Pad 3W

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 40.
Kwajalein (Omelek Island), part of the Reagan Test Site
Kodiak Launch Complex
Wallops Flight Facility

Notes External links

SpaceX Falcon 1 details page
Space Services Inc. space burial page
Maiden launch details at SpaceFlightNow
Damage puts first SpaceX rocket launch on hold, Spaceflight Now, 19 December 2005

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