Falcon 1

Ground station checkout is complete and mission support is ready to go

SpaceX Sets August 2 for Falcon 1 launch

SpaceX Diane Murphy, 310-363-6714 (o) or 424-236-0884 (m) VP Marketing and Communications media@SpaceX.com Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has scheduled the launch of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission for Saturday, August 2nd. The launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) / 7:00 p.m. (EDT) and remain open for five hours. If
launch is delayed for any reason, SpaceX has range availability to resume countdown through August 5.

Lift-off of the vehicle will occur from SpaceX's Falcon 1 launch site at the Kwajalein Atoll, about 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii. Falcon 1 launch facilities are situated on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific.

Designed from the ground up by SpaceX at headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., Falcon 1 is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered launch vehicle. The first stage is powered by a single SpaceX Merlin 1C Regenerative engine - flying for the first time on this Flight 3 mission. A "hold before liftoff" system enhances reliability by permitting all systems to be verified as functioning nominally before launch is initiated. The Falcon 1 second stage is powered by a single SpaceX Kestrel engine.

Falcon 1 is the first new orbital rocket in more than a decade. Merlin is the first new American hydrocarbon engine for an orbital booster to be flown in more than 40 years and only the second new American engine of any kind in more than a quarter century. After achieving orbit, Falcon 1 will be the first privately developed, liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.

The primary customers for the Falcon 1 launch are the Department of Defense, Government of Malaysia and NASA. Falcon 1 is carrying a payload stack of three separating satellites that will orbit at an inclination of 9 degrees:

-- The Trailblazer satellite was developed by SpaceDev of Poway, Calif., for the Jumpstart Program of DoD's Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, as a test platform to validate the hardware, software and processes of an accelerated microsatellite launch. Trailblazer is deployed from the Falcon 1 second stage shortly after the shut-down of the second stage engine, about 10 minutes into flight.

-- Deploying four to eight minutes later will be two NASA small satellites: PRESat, a micro laboratory from NASA's Ames Research Center, and then NanoSail-D, which will unfurl an ultra-thin solar sail, developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center.

-- The three separating satellites attach to the Falcon 1 second stage via the Secondary Payload Adaptor and Separation System, (SPASS), developed by ATSB, a company owned by the Government of Malaysia that develops and commercializes space technology. The SPASS was engineered by Space Access Technologies of Ashburn, Va.

SpaceX will provide live coverage of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission via webcast at: www.SpaceX.com. The webcast will begin 30 minutes prior to launch and will include mission briefings, live feeds and launch coverage from the launch site at the Kawjalein Atoll, as well as a special video tour of SpaceX facilities by Elon Musk, CEO and CTO.

Post-launch, high resolution B-roll video footage and photos will be available for download by contacting: media@spacex.com.

About SpaceX

SpaceX is developing a family of launch vehicles intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally-developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth to geosynchronous orbit to planetary missions. SpaceX currently has 12 missions on its manifest, excluding the two previous Falcon 1 demonstration flights, plus indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts with NASA and the US Air Force.

As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for NASA, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. NASA also has an option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS using the Falcon 9 / Dragon system. SpaceX is the only COTS contender that has the capability to return pressurized cargo and crew to Earth. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site (complex 40) at Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008 in preparation for its maiden flight.

Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers over 500, located primarily in Hawthorne, California, with four additional locations: SpaceX's Texas Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.

Major Events T+secs T+hh:mm:ss Comments
Liftoff 0 0:00:00 Lift off of the Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 1 Launch Vehicle
carrying multiple payloads to orbit including three satellites.
Tower clear 4 0:00:04 Falcon 1 has cleared the tower
Transonic 56 0:00:54 Approaching Mach 1 - the vehicle is now supersonic
Max-Q 69 0:01:09 Approaching Max-Q - the time of maximum dynamic pressure on the
vehicle
Inertial Guidance 140 0:02:20 Vehicle switching to inerital guidance mode
Pressurize Stage 2 145 0:02:25 Stage 2 pressurizing.
MECO 158 0:02:38 Approaching Main Engine Cut-off - “MECO”
Stage Separation 159 0:02:39 Stage Separation confirmed
2nd Stage Ignition 163 0:02:43 2nd stage ignition confirmed
Past 100 km altitude 168 0:02:48 Falcon 1 has crossed the boundary into space - 100 km (62 miles)
Stiffener jettison 173 0:02:53 Kestrel nozzle stiffeners have been jettisoned
Fairing Separation 193 0:03:13 The two halves of the “nose cone” or fairing separate and fall away,
revealing the satellites to the vacuum of space.
Terminal Guidance 527 0:08:47 Vehicle is now in terminal guidance mode
Passing 7.5 km/s 574 0:09:34 Falcon 1 has reached orbital velocity - the first rocket privately
developed, liquid fuel rocket to achieve this milestone
SECO 577 0:09:37 Approaching 2nd stage engine cut-offf - “SECO”
Deploy Trailblazer 587 0:09:47 Coming up to deployment of the primary payload into orbit - The
Trailblazer spacecraft for the U.S. Department of Defense’s Operationally
Responsive Space Office.

Zitat

Stiffener jettison 173 0:02:53 Kestrel nozzle stiffeners have been jettisoned

SpaceX will provide live coverage of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission via webcast at: www.SpaceX.com. The webcast will begin 30 minutes prior to launch and will include mission briefings, live feeds and launch coverage from the launch site at the Kawjalein Atoll, as well as a special video tour of SpaceX facilities by Elon Musk, CEO and CTO.

Pad preparations have been completed. Helium is filling and chilling nominally. Tanks have been purged.

Countdown has begun T- 2 hrs and counting. All systems go at this point.