Posted on 03/22/2006 3:42:09 PM PST by KevinDavis
SpaceX anticipates a maiden launch attempt of their Falcon 1 rocket on this Thursday, March 23rd, at 1pm California time (21:00 GMT), with a final decision pending a detailed data analysis of today's testing.
A flawless flight readiness test with a three second engine firing was completed on the pad late Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasaspaceflight.com ...
Space - the final frontier
Heh... y'mean, *another* live thread? ;')
This is what, the third try, or fourth, I lost count.
I could see calling it the maiden FLIGHT but the maiden
launch attempt?
Good luck to them, we certainly need others doing this.
Try try try again...
They should call it Falcon4 or something. ;')
Watching. Is this Everyman's space rocket?
People like them are what help make the country great. Until they are bought out by Dubai, that is.
Thanks for the Ping.
LOL
This is a very important mission, SpaceX is developing a whole line of launchers completely in the private sector.
If all goes as planned, they will incorporate heavy lift and rockets capable of launching people into orbit.
Their #1 problem (aside from getting past this shakedown flight) is that they are launching from Kwajelein, and are at the mercy of the Air Force and range scheduling, not to mention the remoteness of being on an island in the middle of nowhere.
This is where SeaLauch and its Ukranian Zenit rockets have the edge, they own their launch site, tow it out to the equator and go.
I got my fingers crossed for this, privatization is good and so is competition.
As if I didn't have enough stuff to sdistract me at work. ;)
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