The SpaceX Falcon 1 Launch Vehicle Flight 3 Results and Future Developments
- Paper number
IAC-08.D2.1.3
- Author
Mr. Brian Bjelde, SpaceX, United States
- Coauthor
Mrs. Gwynne Shotwell, Space Exploration Technologies, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Falcon 1, the entry vehicle in the Space Exploration Technologies launch vehicle family, is designed to provide the world’s lowest cost access to orbit. The vehicle is designed above all for high reliability, followed by low cost and a benign flight environment. It is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle capable of placing a 425 kg satellite into a 185km circular orbit, inclined 9.1 degrees. Falcon 1 combines a re-usable, turbo-pump fed first stage powered by a single SpaceX Merlin engine with a pressure fed second stage powered by our Kestrel engine and capable of multiple re-starts. SpaceX has conducted two demonstration flights each sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The first operational launch of Falcon 1 carrying a U.S Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office satellite is scheduled for flight in June 2008 from the SpaceX launch complex in the Central Pacific Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll. During this mission, SpaceX will have demonstrated its ability to perform responsive mission integration for three separate candidate ORS payloads. The actual flight payload will be determined by the ORS Office at or before the SpaceX Flight Readiness Review, which typically occurs two weeks before launch. In addition to the ORS primary payload, Flight 003 will also carry a rideshare adapter experiment for ATSB of Malaysia (the primary customer for the following Falcon 1 launch), and two NASA CubeSat payloads. Results from this mission will be presented. Consistent with SpaceX’s corporate philosophy of rapid and continuous improvement, Falcon 1 has a planned evolution path which will include significant upgrades based upon experience from previous missions and our design work on its sister vehicle, the Falcon 9. Beginning in the second quarter of 2010, the enhanced ‘Falcon 1e’ will become SpaceX’s standard small launch vehicle with upgraded performance capable of placing 1000kg into LEO. An overview of the Falcon 1e upgrades and description on how they will positively impact the satellite community are discussed.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.D2.1.3.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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