Re: SpaceX Falcon Aimed Toward California?

From: Ed Kyle <edkyle99@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Newsgroups: sci.space.policy
Subject: Re: SpaceX Falcon Aimed Toward California?

William Elliot wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jul 2005, Ed Kyle wrote:
>
> > > The first SpaceX Falcon 1 is supposed to launch
> > > from an island at Kwajalein in the Marshall
> > > Islands and fly toward a low earth orbit inclined
> > > 39 degrees to the equator. Looking at a map, I
> > > see that the 39 degree inclination could be
> > > achieved by flying "backwards" "up" the Pacific
> > > Missile Range towards Vandenberg AFB. This seems
> > > plausible, since range tracking assets would be
> > > available to support the launch.
> >
> > I this a private interprise launch?

> It is a launch performed for the Air Force on a contract basis by a
> company that has largely self-funded the development of its own
> launch vehicle. The payload is a U.S. Air Force Academy experiment,
> but the real mission is to test the new rocket. The launch is set to
> take place from a tiny U.S. Army controlled island (Omelek) on the
> eastern rim of the the Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the
> Marshall Islands (RMI). The site is on long term leased to the U.S.
> from the RMI. It is currently part of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic
> Missile Defense Test Site (formerly called Kwajalein Missile Range),
> so it is loaded with the stuff needed to support missile, and now
> space, launches. Kwajalein supported its first space launch (by a
> Pegasus) in 2000. (That one flew into a near-equatorial low earth
> orbit). This would be space launch No. 2. (Of course the range has
> supported ICBM and other missile testing since the 1950s. The site
> has supported anti-missile tests for many years, but no long-range
> missiles have ever been launch from Kwajalein *toward* the U.S., as
> near as I can tell. Until now.

Is this the rocket that won the X prise?
What happened with that craft?

Do you _know_ it's launched toward US?

----

.

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