SpaceX Falcon I Launch III - Build-up Thread

[aero313]

I wish we could have gotten to see what Kistler could have made them do also off topic but I wonder if the first stage on OSC's Taurus II could be reusable like the Falcon rockets?

No, because it would reduce payload to orbit.  Also Spacex has yet to prove reuseability

Followed closely by proving the cost effectiveness of reusability.  I still like the joke that SRBs are reusable so much as recyclable.   

[stockman]

News Release from SpaceX - Not related to Flight III specifically but did not see it posted anywhere yet  - FYI. - now back on topic.. 

......

Diane Murphy Joins SpaceX as Vice President of Marketing and Communications



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HAWTHORNE, CA – Space Exploration Technologies Corporation ( SpaceX), a privately held launch services provider, announced that Diane Murphy has joined the company as Vice President of Marketing and Communications.

Ms. Murphy assumes the newly created position with responsibility for all aspects of marketing and communications, including strategic planning, media relations, advertising, video and web content, exhibits and trade shows, community affairs, and event management, as well as serving as company spokesperson.

“Diane brings a wealth of experience within the aerospace industry and contacts across the media world,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “She will help us communicate effectively as we grow and work to revolutionize access to space.”

“In addition to the extraordinary demand for our products and services, we are experiencing tremendous demand for updates on the upcoming launch of our Falcon 1, delivery of the first Falcon 9 to Cape Canaveral and development of our Dragon spacecraft,” said Gwynne Shotwell, VP, Business Development. “Diane will be instrumental in keeping everyone informed of our progress.”

Murphy comes to SpaceX from Northrop Grumman Corporation where she led communications for their Space Technology Sector. Previously, she served as Vice President of Communications for EADS North America, the US holding company for the world’s second largest aerospace and defense company, and Executive Vice President of the X PRIZE Foundation, organizing the first X PRIZE CUP and working with the state of New Mexico to support the creation of the New Mexico Spaceport.

For fifteen years Murphy served as Chairman and CEO of Federal City Communications providing communications strategies to aerospace, defense, and telecommunications clients. She began her career on Capitol Hill as a press assistant to former House Republican Leader, John J. Rhodes (R-AZ), before working for a Washington consulting firm where she managed campaigns related to defense, energy systems, and directed political advertising campaigns for more than 30 candidates including Senators Bill Cohen (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Governor John Sununu (R-NH).

Murphy is a member of the National Press Club, serves on the Board of Trustees of the X PRIZE Foundation, California Space Authority, and Dashew International Center for Students and Scholars at UCLA. She was educated at Friends Academy, Northwestern University and studied in the former Soviet Union before receiving a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

 

About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous to planetary missions. SpaceX currently has 14 missions on its manifest including the two previous Falcon 1 demonstration flights, plus indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with NASA and the US Air Force.

As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing contract, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon  spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the International Space Station (ISS) and returning to Earth. NASA also has a contract option on Falcon 9 / Dragon to provide crew services to the ISS after Shuttle retirement. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers more than 500, located mostly in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations: SpaceX's Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.

[Comga]

News Release from SpaceX - ...
“In addition to the extraordinary demand for our products and services, we are experiencing tremendous demand for updates on the upcoming launch of our Falcon 1, delivery of the first Falcon 9 to Cape Canaveral and development of our Dragon spacecraft,” said Gwynne Shotwell, VP, Business Development. “Diane will be instrumental in keeping everyone informed of our progress.”

Given the relative lack of updates and information recently, I can't imagine that they value this enough to actually hire someone for this job.  A dedicated hour a week would increase the flow.  However, more information would be really welcome.

An interesting resume and list of contacts in DC.  Those may be part of what appealed to SpaceX.

[todd5ski]

So with all the SpaceX bashing I think I missed when they were delaying this flight to.


Edit: I found the info many pages back. never mind.

[ChefPat]

It looks like the launch is back on for Monday 7/28.
I don't care how long it gets delayed. I just wish them success when they do launch.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/upcoming_launch/

[mr.columbus]

It looks like the launch is back on for Monday 7/28.
I don't care how long it gets delayed. I just wish them success when they do launch.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/upcoming_launch/

I think everybody on here wants to see a successful launch, some are just annoyed by SpaceX's corporate spin which in my view isn't necessary at all. After all, spin does not really count for much in the aerospace industry.

Glad to see the launch is now on for the end of the month.

[nobodyofconsequence]

I think everybody on here wants to see a successful launch, some are just annoyed by SpaceX's corporate spin which in my view isn't necessary at all. After all, spin does not really count for much in the aerospace industry.

Glad to see the launch is now on for the end of the month.

Actually, corporate spin is important. It's intended so that when scuttlebut eventually arrives at a decision makers ear/eyes, it doesn't damage the relationship. You can't plan the path/event/curcumstance by which it does, so you make it universal. Which is why such idiotic pablum gets generated, because marcom/pr/etc tries to anticipate how things will be received/distorted, and predistorts it.

If you think companies really believe it, sorry, no. But it's necessary which is why you will always have it - e.g. human nature.

[Ronsmytheiii]

It looks like the launch is back on for Monday 7/28.
I don't care how long it gets delayed. I just wish them success when they do launch.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/launch_data/upcoming_launch/

The page says Saturday, 7/26

[silver t]

and the web page is marked with-
Updated: 3:34 pm ET March 9, 2007

[Chris-A]

and the web page is marked with-
Updated: 3:34 pm ET March 9, 2007

I'm sure the date is hard coded in, and no one has updated it since.

[Avron]

and the web page is marked with-
Updated: 3:34 pm ET March 9, 2007

I'm sure the date is hard coded in, and no one has updated it since.

Would like Spacex to launch asap.. but they must take the time to do the job right.. if NASA can .. so can Spacex. If you think of it .. there is no mad rush.. success is king, I am sure that they are working hard, have the dates under review and will have new NET date, in line with their readiness.

[HIPAR]

There may not be a 'mad rush' but they need to do something soon.  I'm not implying the first launch attempts were not important .. it's still rocket science.  But this is 2008 and not the 60's when developmental rockets performed as we see in the movie 'The Right Stuff'.

This is a commercial space venture with a need to convince the financial community that your company is 'for real'.  Bottom line mentality rules Wall Street.

Come to think of it, they also need to start convincing the technical analysts about all their fancy hardware being 'for real'.

---  CHAS

[glittle99]

I posted a launch preview piece on airspacemag.com
here's link:

http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Third_Times_the_Charm.html

Probably nothing much new for the readers of this board but we did procure a new photo of the Kwaj launch site.

Let me know any comments or crits.

--Geoffrey Little

[iamlucky13]

A few details are off. For starters, a Falcon 9 can lift about 9900 kg = 22,000 pounds to low earth orbit.

As a commentor noted, they do not use hypergolic fuels in the second stage.

The costs are not necessarily as low as it would seem. They definitely beat government-developed launchers like the Delta and Atlas, but they have much smaller advantages over a couple other competitors, especially Russian Zenit and Dnepr launchers.

[Comga]

Let me know any comments or crits.

Good article for the general public.  Good photo. There was also the tidbit about the fuel nozzel weld.  Hadn't heard that before.
Do you know the opening of the launch window? (in UTC preferably)

Three nits:
Flight 1 did not explode.  That is one of the dangers it demonstrated.  It fell more or less intact and fueled onto the reef.

Also second stage slosh baffles were not "reconfigured" after Flight 2.  They were added.  There were none.  Another case of SpaceX experimenting with which standard practices they can do without. 

It is unlikely that Musk has put a third of his fortune into SpaceX.

[jongoff]

Also second stage slosh baffles were not "reconfigured" after Flight 2.  They were added.  There were none.  Another case of SpaceX experimenting with which standard practices they can do without.

While it's obvious in hind-sight that they should've had baffles, there are upper stages that don't have slosh baffles (Centaur being a good example).  Another interesting piece of data I heard recently from someone who has worked on several GN&C projects for rocket vehicles: he mentioned that it is typically quite difficult to get slosh going in CFD, but as he put it "it's much easier to get slosh going in reality".  They had done the analyses, and with the expected range of inputs the analysis showed they didn't need it.  Between the issues with CFD for this type of problem that my acquaintance mentioned, and the unexpectedly large disturbance input, I think that cutting them a little slack on this one is perfectly fair.

That said *it is* a good warning for those of us working on rocket vehicles.

~Jon

[aero313]

It is unlikely that Musk has put a third of his fortune into SpaceX.

Fortune Magazine has estimated his net worth at $300M - $500M before SpaceX, so one third is not unrealistic.

[Danderman]

Another interesting piece of data I heard recently from someone who has worked on several GN&C projects for rocket vehicles: he mentioned that it is typically quite difficult to get slosh going in CFD, but as he put it "it's much easier to get slosh going in reality". 

The core issue here is that our civilization  does not yet have a Theory of Turbulence, so its pretty much Garbage in Garbage Out for computer simulations in this field. Same for some rocket engine simulations. The most famous example of CFD failing was the X-30 simulation work, which was very computation intensive and pretty much useless.

[Malderi]

The numbers on Musk's investment are way off. At the Dec. 2006 Space Exploration Conference, he mentioned he had put 300 million of his own money into it, and expected to put another 200 million before he ever saw any money coming back. I believe he got about 1.1 billion from the PayPal sale, so they're right at the 1/3 to 1/2 mark, but wrong on the numbers...

[dunderwood]

Paypal sold for 1.1 billion, but if I recall correctly Musk did not own a 100% share of the company.