Monday, July 28, 2008

Launch window coming up!

We're now 4 days away from the launch window for the Falcon 1 flight 3 vehicle, equipped with SpaceX's new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine. Launch window is August 1-5, and launch will occur out of our favorite launch base in the world, Kwaj.

For those that missed it, there was a successful static fire on June 25th. For those that don't remember how cool a static fire is, check out this video of the static fire from Falcon 1 Demoflight 2.

Falcon 1 Flight 3 will carry the Trailblazer satellite for the Jumpstart Program of the Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office (ORS). Additional secondary payloads include an adapter system developed by the government of Malaysia that holds two small NASA satellites.


Payload being encapsulated in the ferring



Vehicle the night before rollout to the launch pad


I'll keep you updated as I hear more...

(check this page to stay up-to-date Falcon 1 using Me.dium Social Search)

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5 comments:

ザイツェヴ said...

Great picture of the payload, thanks for sharing!

Sean said...

Good Luck!

telex said...

best of luck !

( hm, i would easily fit in that nose cone ...)

ザイツェヴ said...

Kert, not as outlandish an idea as it might be. There was some talk about launching people up with an inflatable heat shield, cold gas RCS and a solid braking rocket -- without a capsule as such. Falcon 1 can be used for such stunts. In fact, once Bigelow has a station in a resonanse orbit, it would definitely look attractive. If you fail to make a randevous with the station in 2 hours, fire the rocket and land. And it will only cost you some 10 million.

Klaus said...

I am from Denmark, and I am a great fan of SpaceX and Elon Musk! (I didn't know that he had a brother). I am looking very much forward to se the launch - especialy this time! Good luck, to all of you!