Topic: SpaceX - Falcon 9 test firing succeeds.

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

At full power, the nine engines consumed 3,200 lbs of fuel and liquid oxygen per second, and generated almost 850,000 pounds of force - four times the maximum thrust of a 747 aircraft. This marks the first firing of a Falcon 9 first stage with its full complement of nine Merlin 1C engines . Once a near term Merlin 1C fuel pump upgrade is complete, the sea level thrust will increase to 950,000 lbf, making Falcon 9 the most powerful single core vehicle in the United States.

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.

Quite a lot accomplished with only 500 employees. 

[marstone]

unless they are doing a heavy lift to orbit, that is alot of wasted fuel (money) to just change the crew of the ISS.  But will be a nice addition to the NASA fleet.  Couldn't tell the from the article tho is the Dragon craft a payload for the Falcon 9 or a separate craft that can be launched on it's own. (I figure the first from what i have read)

[Nemesis]

unless they are doing a heavy lift to orbit, that is alot of wasted fuel (money) to just change the crew of the ISS.  But will be a nice addition to the NASA fleet.  Couldn't tell the from the article tho is the Dragon craft a payload for the Falcon 9 or a separate craft that can be launched on it's own. (I figure the first from what i have read)

Its a capsule either manned or cargo or some of both.

Link to SpaceX Dragon full writeup

The Dragon spacecraft is made up of a pressurized capsule and unpressurized trunk used for Earth to LEO transport of pressurized cargo, unpressurized cargo, and/or crew members. Initiated internally by SpaceX in 2005, Dragon will be utilized to fulfill our NASA COTS contract for demonstration of cargo re-supply of the ISS.

The Dragon capsule is comprised of 3 main elements: the Nosecone, which protects the vessel and the docking adaptor during ascent; the Pressurized Section, which houses the crew and/or pressurized cargo; and the Service Section, which contains avionics, the RCS system, parachutes, and other support infrastructure.

The Falcon family is intended to consist of the Falcon 1 which on the first stage uses one of the Merlin engines and the Falcon 9 which last I read was intended to be configured with either 5 or 9 engines on the 1st stage (there was a Falcon 5 planned but it was cancelled in favour of the dual configuration 9).   The Falcon 9 Heavy is actually 3 Falcon 9 vehicles used as a 1st stage together.  The Falcon 9 unlike the Falcon 1 uses a single identical engine for its second stage.  The Falcon 1 uses a different engine for the 2nd stage.

The Falcon 1 is intended for LEO satellite launch. The Falcon 9 is capable of LEO or Geosynchronous orbits and carrying astronauts or cargo to the ISS with the Dragon capsule.

[Nemesis]

Falcon 1 launch

SpaceX Sets August 2 for Falcon 1 launch
First Privately Developed Liquid Fuel Rocket to Orbit

Hawthorne CA – August 2, 2008 - Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has scheduled the launch of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission for Saturday, August 2nd. The launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) / 7:00 p.m. (EDT) and remain open for five hours. If launch is delayed for any reason, SpaceX has range availability to resume countdown through August 5.

Lift-off of the vehicle will occur from SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site at the Kwajalein Atoll, about 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii. Falcon 1 launch facilities are situated on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific.

[Nemesis]

One thing I have wondered is can a Falcon 1 be launched using the White Knight 2?

[Nemesis]

Falcon 1 launch failure.

"Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together," said Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO and chief technical officer. "This is under investigation."

Stage separation was slated to occur two minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff as pyrotechnic bolts fired to sever the physical connections between the stages.

The bolts are all redundantly initiated and have never failed aboard other launch vehicles, according to SpaceX.

But officials stressed it was too early to draw any conclusions about a root cause of the failure.

The 1st stage appears to have functioned perfectly.  Now it depends what caused the separation failure.

[Nemesis]

Link to full article

The new Merlin 1C engine was expected to shut down one-and-a-half seconds before the rocket's two stages separated a little more than two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.

"There was still some thrust left over after one-and-a-half seconds, and that thrust caused the first stage to be propelled back towards the second stage after stage separation," said Elon Musk, founder, CEO and chief technical officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

The problem is relatively minor, and a fix will be ready in time for another Falcon 1 launch attempt as early as September. Parts for the next launch will be transported from the company's Hawthorne, Calif., headquarters to Kwajalein within two or three weeks, according to Musk.

The Merlin 1C engine, which includes a new regenerative cooling system, takes longer to shut down than designers expected, Musk said.

[Nemesis]

I was just reading more on the loss of the 3rd Falcon.  I wonder if it was the kerosene in the regenerative cooling system that was the issue.  When the tank itself is empty the cooling system still has flow going to the engine until the kerosene used as coolant is drained.  That could give a "run on" effect and the lower thrust that was continued.  It makes the engine reusable (in theory anyhow) but add that extra burn time. 

This is of course just my guess and I'm no rocket scientist but it seems reasonable to me.