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.