Tweet
Hopefully on the 24th, my birthday 
SpaceX is targeting late June for a Falcon 1 launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The payloads are from the US government & ATSB, Malaysia's main small satellite company.
SpaceX webcasts their launches, so when the link is announced I'll put it up here.
A much larger Falcon 9 (nine 1st stage engines) is due for delivery to the Kennedy Space Center by the end of the year for launch in early 2009. It too will be carrying a so far secret US government satellite.
If that goes well three more F9 launches are on the manifest for 2009: MDA (Canada), Avanti Communications (UK) and the first test flight of the Dragon spaceship which is intended for ISS cargo/crew and later private cargo/crew launches.
SpaceX's family tree
SpaceX Falcon I: one 1st stage Merlin engine and one 2nd stage Kestrel engine
Falcon 9: nine 1st stage Merlins and one 2nd stage Merlin.
For scale: that cargo shell can hold a school bus.
Falcon 9 Heavy (modern equivalent of the mighty Titan IV): twenty seven 1st stage Merlins and one 2nd stage Merlin.
This beast is designed to put 33,075 lbs (15,000 kg) into a GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) without a cryogenic 2nd stage
(cryogenic = liquid hydrogen + liquid oxygen). This is more than the weight of a Daimler Orion VII Hybrid city bus.
GOD KNOWS what it'll do with one
SpaceX is targeting late June for a Falcon 1 launch from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The payloads are from the US government & ATSB, Malaysia's main small satellite company.
SpaceX webcasts their launches, so when the link is announced I'll put it up here.
A much larger Falcon 9 (nine 1st stage engines) is due for delivery to the Kennedy Space Center by the end of the year for launch in early 2009. It too will be carrying a so far secret US government satellite.
If that goes well three more F9 launches are on the manifest for 2009: MDA (Canada), Avanti Communications (UK) and the first test flight of the Dragon spaceship which is intended for ISS cargo/crew and later private cargo/crew launches.
SpaceX's family tree
SpaceX Falcon I: one 1st stage Merlin engine and one 2nd stage Kestrel engine
Falcon 9: nine 1st stage Merlins and one 2nd stage Merlin.
For scale: that cargo shell can hold a school bus.
Falcon 9 Heavy (modern equivalent of the mighty Titan IV): twenty seven 1st stage Merlins and one 2nd stage Merlin.
This beast is designed to put 33,075 lbs (15,000 kg) into a GTO (Geostationary Transfer Orbit) without a cryogenic 2nd stage
(cryogenic = liquid hydrogen + liquid oxygen). This is more than the weight of a Daimler Orion VII Hybrid city bus.
GOD KNOWS what it'll do with one