Will Send ORS Satellite On Next Flight

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) recently received a vote of confidence from the Department of Defense. SpaceX announced Monday it has signed a contract with the DoD's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office to carry their first Jumpstart mission payload onboard the upcoming Falcon 1 launch.

Scheduled for flight in June 2008 from the SpaceX launch complex in the Central Pacific Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll, the Jumpstart mission aims to establish a preliminary framework for responsive contracting, and to demonstrate the ability to rapidly integrate and execute a mission, from initial call-up to launch.

SpaceX will demonstrate its ability to perform responsive mission integration for three separate candidate ORS payloads. The actual flight payload will be determined by the ORS Office at or before the SpaceX Flight Readiness Review for the Falcon 1 Flight 003 (F1-003) vehicle, which typically occurs two weeks before launch.

As ANN reported, the last SpaceX launch was conducted March 20, 2007. While that flight -- the second test flight of the program -- failed to achieve orbit, it did travel much farther than the company's first launch in March 2006, in which the rocket was destroyed about 30 seconds into its flight.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk notes his company has learned many lessons from those first two attempts, and its progress is evident by the DoD's latest selection.

"In purchasing this flight, the Department of Defense’s ORS Office has given SpaceX a tremendous endorsement," Musk said. "We look forward to demonstrating our ability to be a key ORS enabler with rapid and responsive call-up, integration and launch."

"The Jumpstart mission is an important milestone for Operationally Responsive Space," said Colonel Kevin McLaughlin, head of ORS and commander of Space and Missile Systems Center, Space Development and Test Wing, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. "It demonstrates many of the ORS enablers needed to achieve the responsiveness timelines demanded by our deployed forces. The SpaceX Falcon launch capability is expected to be a key contributor in the responsive launch arena and we are pleased to be their teammate on this important mission."

SpaceX is developing a family of commercial launch vehicles intended to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of both manned and unmanned space transportation. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capability, delivering spacecraft into any inclination and altitude, from low Earth orbit to geosynchronous transfer orbit to interplanetary missions.

FMI: www.spacex.com