Falcon 9 moves to fall launch

SpaceX's planned summer demonstration launch of the first Falcon 9 has slipped to the fall.

A combination of technical work on the rocket and unfinished documentation for the Air Force, which manages safety on the Eastern Range, is causing the delay.

"It's basically dealing with the complexities associated with lifting a new rocket off from a new launch site," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is the nine-engine version of the Falcon I, which failed three times before successfully reaching orbit from an island in the central Pacific.

Before the Falcon 9's maiden flight, SpaceX must test the engines further, integrate them with the rest of the rocket and return the components to Cape Canaveral, Shotwell said. The rocket was assembled at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape and raised for several days in January.

She added that the company, owned by Internet tycoon Elon Musk, must also produce reams of documentation to satisfy safety requirements for the 45th Space Wing, commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward Bolton, a space operations veteran.

"There is a huge amount of documentation that gets passed to the range and lots of meetings, and that process just takes a long time," Shotwell said.

Shotwell said that as a commercial launch company, SpaceX hopes to launch quickly after bringing the Falcon 9 to the Cape Canaveral in September or early October. The first flight will be a demonstration without a payload, but SpaceX has a list of customers waiting for the successful testing of the low-cost rocket.

"We would love to liftoff as quickly as we can thereafter," Shotwell said. "We don't get paid to sit on the ground."