By Irene and Klotz
(Reuters) - The launch of an unmanned Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket was aborted one minute before liftoff on Thursday due to an unexplained technical issue, company officials said.
It was the second attempt this week to launch a communications satellite for SES, which operates the world's second largest fleet.
An initial attempt on Monday was called off after unusual pressure readings in the rocket's liquid oxygen tank.
The company's next launch attempt is on Friday.
Perched on top of the rocket was a 7,000-pound (3,175 kg) communications satellite owned by Luxembourg-based SES S.A., which operates a 54-satellite fleet, the world's second-largest.
The satellite, known as SES-8 and worth about 100 million, will be positioned to provide television, cable, broadband and other services to customers in India, China, Vietnam and other markets in Asia.
"It's an extremely important satellite for us," Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of SES, told reporters at a prelaunch gathering on Sunday in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
"We know that as we go forward into these very significant growth markets that it's absolutely critical that we have a cost-effective and efficient way to get to orbit. That's really what SpaceX has brought us."
Previous SES satellites were launched primarily aboard Russian Proton and European Ariane rockets, which cost far more than the approximately 55 million the company paid for its ride on SpaceX's Falcon booster, Halliwell said.
He would not say exactly how much SpaceX undercut the competition, but did say SES got a discount by agreeing to fly on Falcon 9's first mission to the high altitude that communications satellites require.
In addition to a September 29 test flight of an upgraded Falcon 9, older versions of the rocket have flown successfully five times, including three missions for NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth.
QUARTER OF THE WAY TO THE MOON
SpaceX aims to put SES-8 into an elliptical orbit that reaches more than 50,000 miles from Earth, about a quarter of the way to the moon.
That altitude requires less fuel for SES-8 to fly itself into its 22,369-mile (36,000-km) high operational orbit, thereby extending its service life.
SpaceX hoped to demonstrate its ability to fire up the Falcon 9's upper-stage engine twice during the September test flight, but that did not work. Engineers later realized that liquid oxygen, used for chilling, had come into contact with the motor's igniter lines, causing them to freeze.
"It was not a complicated issue to fix. Obviously, we were glad we caught it on a mission where we were only demonstrating that second burn, as opposed to one where we have to get it done," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told reporters during a prelaunch conference call.
The company needs three successful launches of its upgraded Falcon rocket before it will be eligible to compete to carry the U.S. military's largest and most expensive satellites, a market now monopolized by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
"There's always some risk associated with the flight not working. So we're very appreciative that SES would place a bet on SpaceX," said Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder and chief executive.
SES has options for three more Falcon flights, including one on the firm's heavy-lift rocket, which is under development and expected to debut next year.
SpaceX's launch manifest includes nearly 50 other launches, worth about 4 billion. About 75 percent of the flights are for commercial customers.
"Our prices are the most competitive of any in the world," Musk said. "We will force other rocket companies to either develop new technology that's a lot better or they have to exit the launch market."
Halliwell said SpaceX competitors were "shaking in their shoes."
"There are a lot of people who hope that SpaceX is going to fail," he said. "This is really rocking the industry."
The global satellite industry had revenues of nearly 190 billion in 2012, including nearly 90 billion in television services alone, the Satellite Industry Association trade group reported in October. The U.S. share of the market is 45 percent, the report said.
(Editing by Christopher Wilson)
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As this computer animation shows, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on approach to the International Space Station, with Canadarm2 grappling the capsule in free flight and docking it to the Station. At the end of its mission, Canadarm2 will undock and release Dragon for its return to Earth, where it will then be retrieved and reused.
"Everything looks good as we head toward the April 30 launch date," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, but cautioned more work remains before the launch can be finalized. There is a good chance to make the 30th," said the spaceflight mission planning veteran, adding that a final decision is expected by April 23, quoted by AFP.
If successful with the April 30, 2012 launch and the May 2nd docking, it will be the first time a commercial American robotic spacecraft has ever flown to the International Space Station, notes MSNBC AND SPACE.COM. The spacecraft will remain docked at the ISS for a few weeks before attempting a controlled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.
The vehicle has been given a has been given tentative clearance to launch thew Falocon 9 rocket booster with the Dragon spacecraft on 30 APRIL AT 12:22 EDT (16:22 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida following a FLIGHT READINESS REVIEW (FRR) Monday, April 16, 2012. If mostly successful, the flight will go down in the annals of space history, most likely marking a new era in commercial spaceflight.
Musk voiced cautious optimism that the attempt would work, noting that the company has launched the Falcon 9 rocket twice before and successfully sent its Dragon capsule into orbit and back once. "I THINK WE HAVE A GOT A PRETTY GOOD SHOT BUT IT IS WORTH EMPHASIZING THAT THERE IS A LOT THAT CAN GO WRONG ON A MISSION LIKE THIS," SpaceX entrepreneur Elon Musk said.
The cost of getting to orbit is exorbitant, because the rocket, with its multimillion-dollar engines, ends up as trash in the ocean after one launching. Elon Musk, the chief executive of the Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, likens the waste to throwing away a 747 jet...The Seattle Times
Originally published January 4, 2015 at 8:23 PM Page modified January 4, 2015 at 8:53 PM
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REUSABLE ROCKET MAY CHANGE ECONOMICS OF SPACE LAUNCH
One of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets is scheduled to lift off from Florida on a cargo run to the International Space Station, but for the first time the company will attempt to land the first stage of the rocket intact on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean.
By KENNETH CHANGThe New York Times
SPACEX / The New York Times Four hypersonic grid fins are placed in an X-wing configuration around the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to enable precision targeting for landing.
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In rocketry, what goes up usually comes down in pieces.
The cost of getting to orbit is exorbitant, because the rocket, with its multimillion-dollar engines, ends up as trash in the ocean after one launching.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of the Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, likens the waste to throwing away a 747 jet after a single transcontinental flight.
"Reusability is the critical breakthrough needed in rocketry to take things to the next level," Musk said in October during a talk at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
On Tuesday, his company hopes to upend the economics of space travel.
At 6:20 a.m. Eastern time, one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets is scheduled to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on what is otherwise a routine unmanned cargo run to the International Space Station.
But this time, the company will attempt to land the first stage of the rocket intact on a barge floating in the Atlantic Ocean. After the booster falls away and the second stage continues pushing the payload to orbit, its engines will reignite to turn it around and guide it to a spot about 200 miles east of Jacksonville, Fla.
SpaceX has attempted similar maneuvers on three earlier Falcon 9 flights, and on the second and third attempts, the rocket slowed to a hover before splashing into the water.
"We've been able to soft-land the rocket booster in the ocean twice so far," Musk said. "Unfortunately, it sort of sat there for several seconds, then tipped over and exploded. It's quite difficult to reuse at that point."
The first rocket stage, Musk noted, is as tall as a 14-story building. "When a 14-story building falls over, it's quite a belly flop," he said. "What we need to do is to be able to land on a floating platform."
So SpaceX built a floating platform, 300 feet long and 170 feet wide, for the rocket stage to land on.
A new addition to the rocket is a set of "grid fins" that will fold out after separation to help steer the rocket toward the platform. No people will be aboard the barge during the landing attempt.
If SpaceX's gamble succeeds, the company plans to reuse the rocket stage on a later flight.
Musk put the chances of success at 50 percent or less. But, he added, over the dozen or so flights scheduled for this year, "I think it's quite likely, 80 to 90 percent likely, that one of those flights will be able to land and refly."
Eventually, SpaceX would like to land the first stage back at the launch site.
A longer-term goal is to recover and reuse the second stage as well, and Musk has predicted that a fully reusable rocket could cut launch costs to a hundredth of what they are now.
This NASA cargo mission, SpaceX's fifth, is carrying more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, including an IMAX movie camera, a laboratory habitat for studying fruit flies, and an instrument to measure the distribution of clouds as well as particles of dust, smoke and air pollution. After four weeks docked to the space station, the SpaceX cargo capsule will carry experiments, trash and other items back to Earth.
This flight is also attracting scrutiny, because Orbital Sciences Corp., the other company that NASA has hired to ferry cargo to the space station, suffered a catastrophic failure in October when its Antares rocket fell back to the ground moments after liftoff.
Among the items destroyed in the explosion were 18 student experiments, part of a program run by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.
Some of the students had traveled to the Orbital's launching site in eastern Virginia and left crestfallen.
But Jeff Goldstein, the director of the center, and Nanoracks, the company that made arrangements for the experiments on the space station, were already working to juggle the manifests on future cargo flights.
Three weeks later, 17 of the 18 student teams had recreated their experiments and shipped them to Houston for NASA to add them to the SpaceX payload, then scheduled for launching on Dec. 19.
"It was nuts," Goldstein said. "NASA moved heaven and earth for this."
The 18th team, Goldstein said, decided to modify its experiment, requiring a new safety review.
The launching was subsequently postponed after a test firing of the Falcon 9's nine engines was cut short. After a later successful test firing, the launch date was set for Tuesday.
end quote from:
REUSABLE ROCKET MAY CHANGE ECONOMICS OF SPACE LAUNCH
SpaceX is now targeting Nov. 25 for its first create of an upgraded Falcon 9 close from Aim Canaveral Air Resolve Trench, one week after NASA's planned create of the MAVEN authorize to Mars on an Plot V close from a come up to create pad. "We needed a baby bit above time to think up sure the create site was series for us, and needed to agree to the strap a baby bit of rest," SpaceX Go Gwynne Shotwell thought Wednesday. "They've been working honestly, honestly hard to get this flight off."
In calculation to commence the first Florida create of the taller, above persuasive Falcon 9, after a test flight from California, the authorize is furthermore SpaceX's first create of a big business communications satellite to geosynchronous use field about 22,000 miles former the planet.
NASA, meanwhile, is targeting a 1:28 p.m. EST create this Monday of the 671 million MAVEN authorize atop a Combined Present Fraternity Plot V close. The authorize skin an orbiter that hand down testing the Red Planet's better mood and how it has misrepresented over time.
Shotwell's update about the big business create, which had been planned for Nov. 22, came in the sphere of a press conference celebrating the end of a NASA program that helped SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. appearance new rockets and spacecraft to resupply the Mixed Hole Trench.
The Small business Orbital Road and rail network Facilities program, or COTS, became a model NASA long-drawn-out to crewed flights. The agency hopes to fly astronauts to the station commercially by 2017.
Credit: floridatoday.com
