SpaceX Falcon I Hold-Down Firing Scheduled
- From: "Ed Kyle" <edkyle99@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Apr 2005 15:03:18 -0700
The first flight-ready Falcon I is on its pad at
Vandenberg. SpaceX is set to test fire the vehicle
next week.
Tom Cuddihy provided this link in another sci.space.policy
thread.
"http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2005/04/27/news/news08.txt";
"4/27/05 A small rocket will undergo a big test next week when it
will do everything but blast off from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
If all goes well, a five-hour countdown will end Tuesday, May 3,
with the Falcon rocket's first-stage engine firing - and then
shutting down after a few seconds, the first time in recent
memory that a flight-readiness firing has taken place at
Vandenberg."
....
"A five-hour countdown will kick off at 8 a.m. Tuesday with the
quick firing expected by 1 p.m., assuming no weather-related
or technical issues arise."
....
"In the past few years, SpaceX has set up shop on an abandoned
launch pad, Space Launch Complex-3 West, on south Vandenberg."
....
They've maintained an austere launch facility to keep costs
down, housing the rocket horizontally in a shelter reminiscent
of a catering tent some 100 yards from the launch stand."
"Even with a successful test Tuesday, a first launch must wait
until after the West Coast's final Titan 4 launch because -
in the event of a catastrophic failure - the military doesn't
want the Falcon's fledgling flight going over its nearby
launch pad."
"SpaceX expects to be ready to launch within five days of the
neighboring rocket's departure ... However, if Titan 4's launch
date slips, SpaceX says it may move the Falcon's maiden liftoff
to the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean."
"SpaceX, along with chief competitor Orbital Sciences Corp.,
recently received an "indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity"
contract from the Air Force that could be worth up to
$100 million. Between now and 2010, the Air Force plans to
order rockets to ferry small satellites to space."
- Ed Kyle
.
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