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Falcon 1 Ready to Launch
DarkNemesis618 writes "SpaceX's new rocket, the Falcon 1 is set to launch February 8. Twice now it has been delayed for technological problems and then for structural. It's payload is set to be the FalconSat-2 satellite. What's interesting is that this satellite was built by the cadets at the USAF Academy. The satellite is going to be studying the effects of space plasma. It appears NASA & the shuttle are not the only ways for the government to launch satellites anymore."
Anyone else worried about militaries getting even more involved in space?
Secondly, we've had satellites, space stations, and an assortment of space probes out in space for over 40 years, so why are they only sending one up now? Wouldn't the "effects" of this space plasma already have made itself obvious with it's impact on military satellites already in existence? So what are they really testing, hmm?
Obviously I have a lot of questions, but something seems out of place with this mission. Shouldn't they have done this before they sent up human beings to the moon? I'm obviously totally uninformed or totally paranoid. Maybe both!
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Prior to the Reagan administration, NASA was the only game in town for just about everything that went into space, incuding private payloads as well. Or you had to renouce your American citizenship (if you were American) and try the Russians. Sure, there were private contractors who did the actual construction of the vehicles and even largely ran the lanuch operations, but there was a NASA official at just about every other step along the way.
As an example of private payloads launched through NASA, the Telstar Satellite, while owned and technically operated by AT&T, was built and launched through a government procurement contract. The original process was so complicated that AT&T bought a couple of congress critters to reform the process, which led to the development of Intelsat for major long distance communication. BTW, the Wikipedia articles really whitewash the whole episode of how ugly the politics got for launching private space vehicles.
This is still used as an example of how the government should not operate in space, and that the bureaucracy for getting things into space has always been there. Only now are totally private launch systems even being developed, and even in the case of SpaceX there is still government money involved. Just not as directly and SpaceX decided to take matters into their own hands in regards to the launch. It was originally scheduled to be at Vandenburg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara, but got tied down in bureaucratic B.S. to force them to either delay the lanuch for a considerable length of time or find another place to launch.
More important about the Falcon 9 is that it is being designed from the ground up as a manned lanuch platform. Sure, the primary market is still going to be for satellite launches, but for less than $200 m you can put a manned spacecraft platform into orbit is going to be a neat thing to see. With multiple passengers as well.
If you are ambitious enough and have the money burning a hole in your pocket, you can even start designing the spacecraft, but you are right that I would like to see if SpaceX can even get the Falcon 1 going first.
I'm a big fan of Elon Musk, who started SpaceX with the money he got from selling PayPal to eBay. He's a pretty good example of someone who grew up with dreams about space who's trying to make those dreams a reality. I think his efforts with towards dramatically decreasing the cost of space launch are quite important, and crucial for his (and my) long-term goal of making humanity a multi-planet species.
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This set of notes by Michael Belfiore from their pre-launch press conference for their launch attempt last year is a pretty interesting read and gives great insight into what Musk wants to do with SpaceX. Some excerpts:
SpaceX's second Gen rocket engine will be the biggest rocket engine in the world, though not the biggest in history. The F1 engine that sent people to the moon is no longer in production, so Musk doesn't count that.
Q: What customers will you put on Falcon 9?
A: We haven't thought a lot about it because it's speculative, but big customers would be NASA, Bigelow Aerospace, which is launching its first subscale space station module next year, and potentially people who just want to go to orbit and just spend some time on orbit. Also we could do a loop around the moon, which actually wouldn't require a huge rocket. [Space Adventures recently cut a deal with the Russian Space Agency to do just that, so that may be what inspired Musk to say that.]
Q: When will you go to space?
A: I'm not doing this to go into space myself, per se. I want to help build a space faring civilization. It would have been very easy for me to pay to go to the International Space Station myself. I want to help other people get to space.
Musk: The expansion of life on earth to other places is arguably the most important thing to happen to life on earth, if it happens. Life has the duty to expand. And we're the representatives of life with the ability to do so.
Q: When will you fly cargo missions to the space station?
A: I hope in the next 3 to 4 years.
Another question from me: Are you developing a manned vehicle right now, or have you thought that far ahead yet?
A: I can't comment on that right now.
Q: What's next in the entreprenurial space field?
A: Lots of people doing things--Paul Allen [who funded SpaceShipOne], Jeff Bezos with Blue Origin, John Carmack with Armadillo Aerospace...Musk thinks we're heading toward a Netscape moment, when someone turns a profit, and hopefully it'll be SpaceX, and then investment capital will start to flow in.