… it’s Falcon rocket engineering. I mentioned in my post about McCain and Mars exploration that I’d talka bit more about civilian space companies.
Space X wants to be the first civilian company to build a rocket that can put a package into orbit, and they’re very close. They’ve had two test flights of their first-generation Falcon 1 rocket, and the third flight will be late June or early July. The first two tests had limited success (they lost the first one right after launch, and the second one almost made it into orbit). I’m pretty excited about this company, and we may need them very badly in a few years once the Shuttle is retired, but before Orion is ready to put people into orbit.
Space X continues to march forward. The Falcon 9 rocket is the big one they’re working, and it will use a complement of nine Merlin engines to launch. They tested a cluster of five of their Merlin engines on May 29th and put the video online (MS ASX format). Crank up the speakers for the full effect.
Wow.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Falcon sounds familiar – isn’t that the Japanese ‘Hayabusa’ (Muses -C = “Falcomn” in English) mission to asteroid Itokawa too!
June 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I’ve heard of them before, but can’t recall where. The rocket exterior is reminiscent of the Atlas and one of the Deltas, but the exciting part looks like the Merlin engine. Over twenty years ago I heard it proposed to use a standard engine that could be clustered to make a larger launch vehicle. At first glance this looks like an implementation of that idea.
There is but one word for this: Sweet!
June 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Yay! First post – even if there was the usual typos issue … That’s “Falcon” in English o’course!
Plus more great news just breaking / broken (?) :
Phoenix has got a scoop of Mars!
)
(C’mon Bad Astronomer I know you refer us to <Emily a lot & that’s fine but can’t you post your thoughts & keep putting up some ‘Phoenix’ news here too? Please?
Oh & for those who haven’t heard yet GLAST was launched succcessfully a short time ago too!
Finally, on a personal note I just saw three excellent meteors – incl. one with a twin tail – all quite bright outside in the space of half an hour or so!
(Its early morning here – Adelaide, Sth Oz time.)
_______________________
Bad news is from Earth, Good news is from Space!
June 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Elon Musk (founder of Space X) is my hero. How many 8 year old boys have said “When I make a billion dollars, I’m going to build my own spaceship”? Ok, so most of them never made that billion dollars, but he did, and he used it to build a spaceship. That’s awesome.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
The cool thing about Spacex is it lets spaces buffs like us follow their development. It is fascinating watching them develop thier launch system and see how they have evolved. They were going to do a Falcon 5.. then changed their minds. Their “stats” are always debated on..ie cost and payload.
Elon started the company, among other reasons, because he didn’t like the cost the russians were going to charge him to send the “Mars Oasis” to Mars. (see http://edcorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=381 I hope the link works directly)
Just fun to watch. They even put cameras on their rockets to watch the “success” of their launches..
I hope they are successful..be fun to see what they will do with their success..particularly with their Falcon 9 and Falcon heavy..(a 27 engine rocket..how cool is that
)
jb
June 11th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
The name “Merlin” was first used to name an engine developed prior to WWII, and these engines were used extensively by the RAF in the WW II to defend Great Britain against the the German Luftwaft!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Merlin
[...]
They are widely considered to be among the most successful aero engines produced during World War II, and perhaps the finest piston engines ever built for aviation.
[...]
June 11th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7436088.stm
A Nasa space telescope has launched successfully on a mission to explore the Universe with “gamma-ray glasses”.
The Glast mission will shed light on some of the most violent events in the Universe, that release massive amounts of energy in the form of gamma-rays.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Nasa can always use the ariane rockets
(it will have to snow on Venus before something like this will happen)
June 11th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
“Nasa can always use the ariane rockets”
NASA plans to hoist Hubble’s successor via Arianespace
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a planned space infrared observatory, intended to be a significant improvement on the aging Hubble Space Telescope. JWST is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. Formerly called the Next Generation Space Telescope (or NGST), it was renamed after NASA’s second administrator, James E. Webb, in 2002. The telescope’s launch is planned for no earlier than June 2013. It will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket.[1]
June 11th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
And on that note…..
The metallic mounds of Venus Sure, this “snow” is lead and bismuth sulfide, but still……
June 11th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
“How many 8 year old boys have said “When I make a billion dollars, I’m going to build my own spaceship”? ”
Jeff Bezos?
June 11th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Some time ago I watched this TED talk by Burt Rutan about the future of space travel.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/4
June 12th, 2008 at 5:16 am
I sure hope SpaceX is more skilled in rocket _engineering_ than they are at video encoding.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I always though Orbital Sciences Corp. was the first private company to do this with their Pegasus rocket.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Pegasus first launched 1990 according to Wikipedia. The worlds first civilian commercial space transportation company Arianespace was founded 1980, but first launched the previously developed Ariane 1979. RSC Energia went commercial 1994, and houses Soyuz while participating in the commercial Sea Launch service, which according to Wikipedia has had 26 launches already. I’m sure there are more examples of civilian companies – maybe they dominate in number?
Seems Falcon rocket engineering has some catching up to do.
Wasn’t that how V-2 achieved its robustness, with a lot of small nozzles clustered within the single cone? Of the order of ~ 30 – 40 nozzles, IIRC. Dunno if they were completely independent, but the basic idea was certainly used to some extent.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Wait, they said they’re using their fuel supply as the hydraulic fluid?
June 17th, 2008 at 3:37 am
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