SpaceX to focus on Cape launch

After finally succeeding with a fourth launch in the central Pacific, SpaceX can turn its attention to the launch of a larger rocket planned for the middle of next year from the Space Coast.

"Our attention goes to Cape Canaveral," Diane Murphy, SpaceX spokeswoman, said. "By the end of the year, we should begin our vehicle processing operations."

Sunday evening SpaceX's Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth. Three previous attempts either caught fire, wobbled out of control or were damaged after second stage separation.

With the success of the Falcon 1, key engineers can begin working on the Falcon 9, which will be launched from the Cape by the middle of 2009. The first stage is scheduled to arrive on the Cape by the end of the year.

The successful launch validates the command and control structure, and launch operation processing and procedure, among other launch techniques, said Murphy.

"It retirees that same risk on the Falcon 9," said Murphy. "The Falcon 9 and Falcon 1 are a family of vehicles. We are basically using the same system."

The Falcon I lifted off at 7:15 p.m. (EDT ) Sunday from Omelek Island at the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll, about 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii. After the third failure, paying customers decided to withhold their payloads until a rocket reached orbit. However, the rocket launched Sunday carried a 364-pound payload mass simulator, which remains in orbit.



Preliminary data indicate the payload reached an elliptical orbit of 500 km by 700 km, 9.2 degrees inclination, exactly as targeted.

"The data shows we achieved a super precise orbit insertion — middle of the bull's-eye — and then went on to coast and restart the second stage, which was icing on the cake," said Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO who made a fortune as an Internet entrepreneur.

SpaceX has paying customers for the next four flights of the Falcon 1 and for at least four flights of the Falcon 9, which eventually could carry crew and cargo to the International Space Station.

The Falcon 9 program made a successful 15-second test of nine engines in August, and the program has met all milestones required to receive nearly $300 million in federal funding under a program designed to encourage private rocket companies.

"Our key goal is to validate the key design of the Falcon vehicle," said Murphy. "It was a learning process. It was a very difficult thing. It requires a million things to go right."

To see the Falcon launch, visit the SpaceX website at www.spacex.com