Chris Bergin - 1/11/2006 9:19 AMThis date is pending a couple of review processes, but is the current launch date for the second attempt to fly the Falcon I.
jimvela - 1/11/2006 6:59 PMLet me be the first to say that I sincerely hope that SpaceX has fixed its issues, and to wish them a successful launch!
dutch courage - 3/11/2006 1:32 PMOn the wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX the second Falcon 1 launch will loft an instrumented demonstration payload to return data on the booster's performance.
CentEur - 3/11/2006 8:57 AMIt makes an even better opportunity for all the bugs to expose and get recorded. No satellite owner to irritate this time.
coach - 3/11/2006 1:06 PMNo satellite owner to irritate this time.Amen. Why didn't SpaceX launch this one the first time? Coach
coach - 3/11/2006 3:47 PMThanks aero313, now I remember. TACSAT1 was delayed due to another rocket on the pad in California and other issues. Coach
aero313 - 3/11/2006 6:08 PMQuoteCentEur - 3/11/2006 8:57 AMIt makes an even better opportunity for all the bugs to expose and get recorded. No satellite owner to irritate this time.Nope, just the taxpayers...
meiza - 5/11/2006 10:20 AMSpaceX should have done empty test flights before. Anyway, Darpa is paying them for sandbag launches, tiny student sat on board or not.EELV development was subsidized by American taxpayers too.
And don't even start about NASA's rockets, but they're banned from the commercial market by law. Still of course, NASA using them instead of the commercial markets can be seen as an aberration.
I don't know how much Orbital got help during their research and development phases, I honestly don't have an idea...