YM COLUMN ARCHIVE

August 6, 2008

Falcon 1 of the USA failed in launching for the third time

• There is an island called Omelek in Kwajalein Atoll located in mid Pacific Ocean 4,000km southwest of Hawaii. From Reagan Launch Site of US army on the island was launched Falcon 1 at 11:34pm on August 3 (US Central Time: 3:34am International Standard Time). The first stage made a perfect flight to have excited flight control room but two minutes and thirty-nine seconds after the launch, interstage separation didn’t work so that the second stage fell on ocean attached with the first stage. Onboard the spacecraft were loaded satellite Trailblazer of Defense Department and PRESat, small experiment module of NASA and Nanosail D, test solar-sail of NASA, but they all went down the ocean.

• Falcon 1 is one of the private rockets financially assisted from the government and being under development by Space X founded in 2002 by an IT billionaire Elon Musk. Space X was selected for developing commercial rocket in August 2006 together with Rocketplane Kistler out of applications over one hundred and is now developing medium size Falcon 5 and large Falcon 9 in parallel with Falcon 1, all of which are two stage rocket type using liquid oxygen and kerosene for fuels. The first stage is designed to parachute down to ocean for recovery so that drastic cost saving is expected.

• Falcon 1 and 5 attacked into the market of small size rockets and Falcon 9 is to compete with Delta and Atlas of giant corporations like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. They are really high-spirited. Incidentally, it was March 25, 2006 when Falcon 1 was first launched with satellite FalconSat of The US Air Force Academy. Twenty-nine seconds after the lift-off there was a fuel leakage to have caused engine shutdown and ended up in a failure. Falcon No.2 launched in March 2007 went out of order in spinning due to fuel sloshing occurred at the second stage so that the rocket was unable to reach the satellite orbit. The launch this time after the thoroughgoing preparations went wrong again. Mr. Musk, CEO of Space X, boasts to say, “It’s all right. We’ve got enough money.” I hope he will overcome this difficulty with broad view and careful step.

• You may all know that giant space structure called International Space Station (ISS) is now under construction. ISS targets 2010 for its completion, for which American space shuttle and Russian Soyuz are transporting crews and necessary materials. Space shuttles have become so much aging that they are to be retired in 2010 after the completion of ISS. Then, what will come to American space transportation after the retirement of space shuttle? First of all, what NASA is planning is Project Orion which is;

          Ares I: medium size to carry crew, not reusable
          Ares V: large size to transport cargo, not reusable
          Orion: Nickname of Crew　Exploration　Vehicle(CEV),                      manned spaceship to fly to ISS, moon and Mars

In the beginning, CEV was called Antares or Artemis but now  Orion is used both for the name of project and manned spacecraft. It is same as Apollo in 1960’s when the name of Apollo was used for the project and manned spacecraft. For your reference, please do not confuse NASA’s Orion with Project Orion that was the name of engineering research project of spacecraft by nuclear pulse propulsion under development in USA from 1950’s through to1960’s.

• Accordingly, NASA is in a hurry for completion of Project Orion to realize full-scaled operation in 2015, which means there will be a blank period for five years from 2010. If things go as they do now, the USA loses the means to transport crew to the moon unless Russian Soyuz carries them. NASA is forced to be patient until the above said Ares comes into service. In this troubled period comes Space X. What American government expects Space X are; (1) as the government takes care of big scaled and risky project like moon and Mars, private sector works on small satellite such as going around the earth (2) private sector handles transportation of materials to ISS for a blank period of five years (3) private sector leads business to satisfy people’s expectation to the space journey.

• Space X must be satisfied with the big advance of new type engine Merlin IC that was loaded for the first stage of Falcon 1, because Merlin IC will be also used for Falcon 9. It is a little bit disappointing though, that the satellite did not reach the orbit because of the trouble with interstage separation, which we seldom hear recently. It may be better, however, to start with trouble rather than everything goes smoothly from the beginning. The situation that rockets of the corporation supported by NASA failed for three times in a row may provoke the severe criticism from rivaling Boeing and Lockheed Martin and many people will be concerned about the safety of space journey by rocket of Space X. Most important is credibility for private business, so I want to know the analytical result of the accident cause as soon as possible.

I welcome your opinions on this column to the following E-mail address.
matogawa@planetary.or.jp