Impending Launch of Privately Funded, Re-Useable, Orbital Rocket

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) has announced that its Falcon orbital launch vehicle will be officially unveiled in Washington, DC on Thursday, December 4, 2003.

SpaceX will bring the entire seven-story high rocket and its mobile launch system to the nation's capital as part of the celebrations marking the hundred-year anniversary of manned flight. The company will host an unveiling ceremony and press conference, followed by a reception at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum.

With the grounding of the Space Shuttle creating a backlog in hitchhiker satellite deliveries, there is a great need for new means of access to space. Moreover, the Falcon rocket is notable for being:

• The first rocket with substantial reusability developed since the Space Shuttle first flew more than two decades ago. Once the Shuttle retires, the Falcon will become the world's only reusable rocket.
• A major breakthrough in the cost of access to space, with a price per flight to orbit over four times lower than the nearest American competitor.
• Designed from a "clean sheet" for reliable space transportation. Most existing launch vehicles, which were derived from weapons systems, have comparatively lower reliability.

SpaceX expects to launch the Falcon in early 2004 from the SpaceX launch complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Scheduled payload will be a Department of Defense tactical communications & observation satellite called TacSat-1.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space by a factor of ten. Falcon, a two stage, liquid-fueled orbital launch vehicle, is the company's first product. The entire vehicle, including main and upper stage engines, primary structure, avionics and guidance control, is being developed internally at SpaceX.

Headquartered in El Segundo, California, CEO Elon Musk founded SpaceX in June 2002. SpaceX is the third company Mr. Musk has founded. Previously he co-founded and was the largest shareholder of PayPal, the world's leading electronic payment system, which sold to online auction giant eBay(tm) for $1.5 billion in 2002.

FMI: www.SpaceX.com