Hawthorne, CA – (July 15, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) announces the successful launch of Falcon 1 Flight 5 launch vehicle and delivery of Malaysia’s RazakSAT into the correct orbit.

“This marks another successful launch by the SpaceX team,” said Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. “We are pleased to announce that Malaysia’s RazakSAT, aboard Falcon 1, has achieved the intended orbit.”

Falcon 1, a two-stage, liquid oxygen/rocket-grade kerosene vehicle designed and manufactured by SpaceX, lifted off Monday, July 13, at 8:35 pm (PDT). Lift off occurred from the Reagan Test Site (RTS) on Omelek Island at the U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 2,500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

RazakSAT was designed and built by Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn Bhd (ATSB), a pioneer and leader in the design and manufacture of satellites in Malaysia.

“Our ground systems were able to pick up communication from RazakSAT on its first pass,” said Norhizam Hamzah, Senior Vice President / Chief Technical Officer, Space Systems Division, ATSB. “The satellite is communicating as expected and our team will continue to monitor the data closely.”

For more information about the Falcon family of vehicles, and to watch the Falcon 1 Flight 5 video, visit the SpaceX website at (SpaceX.com).

About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With the Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 vehicles, SpaceX offers highly reliable/cost-efficient launch capabilities for spacecraft insertion into any orbital altitude and inclination. Starting in 2010, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will provide Earth-to-LEO transport of pressurized and unpressurized cargo, including resupply to the International Space Station (ISS).

Founded in 2002, SpaceX is a private company owned by management and employees, with minority investments from Founders Fund and DFJ. The SpaceX team now numbers nearly 800, with corporate headquarters in Hawthorne, California. For more information, please visit the company’s web site at (SpaceX.com).

Hawthorne, CA – (June 16, 2009) – Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) announces Ken Bowersox as vice president of the newly formed Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Department. He will be co-located in Houston, Texas, and SpaceX Headquarters in Hawthorne, California.

Bowersox joins SpaceX with over 19 years of experience at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Selected to the astronaut corps in 1987, he has flown five times on NASA’s Space Shuttle, serving as pilot, commander and mission specialist, and once on a Russian Soyuz, where he served as the flight engineer during descent. During his five orbital missions, Bowersox has logged over 211 days in space, including five and a half months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), where he was the mission commander of the 6th expedition. He was also a crew member for the first two Hubble Space Telescope repair flights and two United States Microgravity Laboratory flights.

Subsequent to his mission aboard the ISS, Bowersox served as the director of the Johnson Space Center’s Flight Crew Operations Directorate, where he was responsible for the NASA Astronaut Office and all aircraft operations at the Johnson Space Center. Most recently, Bowersox has been working as an independent aerospace consultant, serving on the NASA standing review boards for Space Shuttle, ISS, Constellation, Orion and the Constellation Suit System.

“Ken Bowersox is a critical asset to the SpaceX team, as we prepare for crewed missions aboard our Dragon spacecraft,” said Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of SpaceX. “His experience in the U.S. astronaut corps, and aboard the International Space Station, will be invaluable in shaping the future of commercial manned spaceflight.”

About SpaceX

SpaceX is revolutionizing access to space with a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft designed to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. In addition, NASA recently selected the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for the ISS Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) contract award.

The contract includes 12 flights between 2010 and 2015 and represents a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be carried to the ISS.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers more than 700 full time employees, located primarily in Hawthorne, California, with additional locations, including SpaceX’s Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.

By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

The first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket essentially crashed into the second stage as the two were attempting to separate during Saturday’s launch, the company’s founder said in a statement released in the last few minutes.

Under the heading “Timing is Everything,” Elon Musk said the origin of the problem stems from the shift to a new first-stage motor used during the launch — the third attempt for the Los Angeles-area company.

The issue deals with a “thrust transient” in which the first-stage’s unburned fuel “combined with a small amount of residual oxygen to produce a small thrust,” SpaceX said.

That surge from the first stage was stronger than the thrust produced by the mechanism used to separate the two stages, causing the “first stage to recontact the second stage”

“As it turned out, a very small increase in the time between commanding main engine shutdown and stage separation would have been enough to save the mission,” Musk said in the statement.

The company was aware of the potential, but simply didn’t compensate enough for the issue, Musk said.

SpaceX’s conclusion was reached through four methods of analysis, the statement said.

Resolving the issue does not require a change in technology — as was the case with the switch in rocket engines from flight 2 to flight 3 — and, thus, the turnaround between launch attempts will be short, Musk said.

The company’s second flight attempt was made on March 20, 2007. According to SpaceX, the Falcon 1 rocket reached space, but not orbit. Issues identified in the failed attempt resulted in the complete re-design of the first-stage engine.

“It looks like we may have flight four on the launch pad as soon as next month,” Musk said in Wednesday night’s statement. “The long gap between flight two and three was mainly due to the Merlin 1C regen engine development, but there are no technology upgrades between flight three and four.”

Musk took seven positives from Saturday’s launch:

However, Musk said, because of when the failure happened in the flight sequence, the company was unable to test changes made to resolve the issue leading to the loss of the second flight.

Still, he said “I feel confident that this will not be an issue for the upcoming flight four.”

The first flight, on March 24, 2006, ended when a fuel leak caused the rocket to catch fire about 25 seconds into the flight.

Earlier this week, the privately-held Hawthorne, CA-based company announced a $20 million equity investment from Founders Fund, a San Francisco venture capital firm. The Founders Fund’s existing portfolio includes Facebook, Powerset, Slide and Quantcast, and Managing Partner Luke Nosek will join the SpaceX board as part of the financing, SpaceX said in an August 4 news release.

Musk prevously co-founded PayPal, the world’s leading electronic payment system, which was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. In 1995, Mr. Musk co-founded Zip2, which sold to Compaq Computer Corporation for more than $300 million.

In a message to SpaceX employees, the Southern California company’s founder Elon Musk addressed the third consecutive launch failure by the private company hoping.

The memo, titled “Plan Going Forward” was shared this evening after the company’s Falcon 1 rocket failed to reach orbit when the second stage didn’t separate from the first.

Here is the text of Musk’s memo:

It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight [Falcon 1, Flight 3]. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened.

–Elon–

The Falcoln 1 lifted off at a 8:33 p.m., but SpaceX reported “an anomoly” at 8:37 p.m., PDT. — just seconds after a live video feed of the launch cut off abruptly.

Video of the first Falcon 1 launch also cut off when that vehicle was lost during ascent.

This was the third Falcon 1 launch attempt by SpaceX.

The company said updates would be available on their website.

UPDATE: From SpaceX, “Posted August 2, 2008 - 20:38 PDT

We have heard from launch control that there has been an anomaly. More details will be posted to the website as available.”

SpaceX’s Falcoln 1 rocket aborted at the T-0 mark this evening, but the company says everything is fine with the spacecraft and that another countdown may be possible tonight.

The countdown clock currently shows a hold with 1-hour, 30-minutes and counting upward.

SpaceX says: “Engineers are reviewing data. No decision has been made yet, but it is looking promising that we will recycle and reset the clock to T-10 minutes. We have 50 minutes left in today’s launch window.”

UPDATE: T-10 minutes and counting. Posted 8:25 p.m. PDT

Launch attempt, the third for the Falcon series, has been pushed back from 4 p.m. PDT to 8 p.m.

Live coverage is available at http://www.spacex.com.

The first Falcon 1 launch was lost during ascent, while the second reached space, but not orbit.

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.

Designed from the ground up by SpaceX at headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., Falcon 1 is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered launch vehicle. The first stage is powered by a single SpaceX Merlin 1C Regenerative engine – flying for the first time on this Flight 3 mission. A “hold before liftoff” system enhances reliability by permitting all systems to be verified as functioning nominally before launch is initiated. The Falcon 1 second stage is powered by a single SpaceX Kestrel engine.

Falcon 1 is the first new orbital rocket in more than a decade. Merlin is the first new American hydrocarbon engine for an orbital booster to be flown in more than 40 years and only the second new American engine of any kind in more than a quarter century. After achieving orbit, Falcon 1 will be the first privately developed, liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.

The primary customers for the Falcon 1 launch are the Department of Defense, Government of Malaysia and NASA. Falcon 1 is carrying a payload stack of three separating satellites that will orbit at an inclination of 9 degrees.

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally-developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. SpaceX currently has 12 missions on its manifest, excluding the two previous Falcon 1 demonstration flights, plus indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with NASA and the US Air Force.

As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. NASA also has an option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS using the Falcon 9 / Dragon system. SpaceX is the only COTS contender that has the capability to return pressurized cargo and crew to Earth. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site (complex 40) at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008 in preparation for its maiden flight.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 500, located primarily in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations: SpaceX’s Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.

World-renowned physicist, cosmologist, and best-selling author Professor Stephen Hawking flew weightless today aboard a commercial plane flight originating from Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility.

Hawking — aboard a Zero Gravity Corporation flight sponsored by Space Florida and The Sharper Image — experienced periods of weightlessness as the flight performed eight parabolas. It was the first time Professor Hawking, the world’s leading expert on gravity, had an opportunity to experience zero gravity.

“It was amazing. The zero-g part was wonderful,” Hawking said in a statement released by the company. “I could have gone on and on — space here I come!”

Hawking added, “I recommend the experience to everyone and I hope that many will follow me and experience weightlessness. There are a few people and organizations I would like to thank. First I’d like to thank Zero Gravity Corporation, The Shaper Image and Peter Diamandis for arranging this for me. Second, I’d like to thank Space Florida and the NASA Kennedy Space Center for being my host. The Space Shuttle Landing Facility is the first step to the moon and Mars. It is very special for me, to fly into weightlessness from here.”

“Professor Hawking’s expression said it all — the grins of sheer joy and excitement he displayed were unmistakable and no different than the giddiness and fun that all of our flyers experience,” said Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, CEO and Co-Founder of ZERO-G, “For me personally, and for all of us at ZERO-G, it has been a complete honor and thrill to give Professor Hawking this opportunity to fulfill one of his lifelong dreams.”

Professor Hawking did not fly with his wheelchair, rather, he was placed flat on his back, on the specially padded floor in the center of the large open cabin at the start of each parabola. He then floated up into the center of the cabin. ZERO-G co-founders Dr. Peter H. Diamandis and astronaut Byron Lichtenberg were positioned alongside of Hawking as he floated weightless with the assistance of nurse practitioner Nicola O’Brien, then carefully guide him slowly back down to the floor during the return to normal gravity. The onboard flight’s crew and staff included four physicians, two of which are members of Hawking’s own medical team.

The Hawking flight was also organized as a benefit for several charitable organizations, namely Easter Seals (www.easterseals.com); the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation (www.starlight.org); the X PRIZE Foundation (www.xprize.org) and Augie’s Quest (www.augiesquest.org). ZERO-G donated two seats aboard the Hawking flight to each group, for them to then auction off. Altogether, the charities raised $144,000, which included $75,000 raised by the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation for the two tickets it auctioned on eBay. In addition to the flight itself, the donors and other passengers that participated also enjoyed a Space Florida-sponsored dinner and lecture by Professor Hawking at the JW Marriott in Orlando on Wednesday evening, April 25.

The first stage falls away from SpaceX’s Falcon 1 after a successful launch and climb to space. The image was captured from the company’s video stream and posted on Flickr.

 

Updated: 9:17 p.m., PDT.

By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

SpaceX’s Falcon 1 used a second launch attempt today to get off the pad and into space, reaching an altitude of 200 miles. However, the company lost communication with the rocket after roughly 5 minutes and 5 seconds of flight when the vehicle rolled out of control and caused the second-stage engine to cutoff about 5 minutes early, according to published reports.

Launch came at 6:10 p.m., PDT, following a scrub on today’s first launch attempt when the main engine fired and almost immediately aborted.

The duration of the Falcon’s flight was sufficient to complete the first stage, attain a separation and have a stable second-stage.

While calling the day’s events a success, SpaceX founder Elon Musk acknowledged to reporters that the Falcon failed to reach a full orbit.

The problem that ended the mission should be easy to correct, he said, adding that the mission cleared the most-difficult hurdles.

“All in all, this test has flight proven 95+ percent of the Falcon 1 systems, which bodes really well for our upcoming flights of Falcon 1 and Falcon 9, which uses similar hardware,” Musk said. “We do not expect any significant delay in the upcoming flights at this point. The Dept of Defense satellite launch is currently scheduled for late Summer and the Malaysian satellite for the Fall.”

This was the second of two test flights for the El Segundo, CA-based company, officially known as Space Exploration Technologies. The first flight ended when a fuel leak caused the rocket to catch fire about 25 seconds into the flight.

SpaceX is setting up for another launch attempt tonight, potentially in the next 10-55 minutes.

Update: SpaceX is now working on re-fueling the Falcon 1 rocket for another launch attempt at 6:10 p.m., PDT, following a 16-minute countdown.