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Press Release: SpaceX Signs Contract with Department of Defense – Falcon 1 to Launch Operationally Responsive Space Satellite on Next Flight

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Hawthorne, CA – March 10, 2007 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) announced that it has signed a contract with the Department of Defense’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.

“In purchasing this flight, the Department of Defense’s ORS Office has given SpaceX a tremendous endorsement,” said Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. “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."

The list of candidate payloads already under development includes the following:

1. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Plug and Play (PnP) satellite bus – a third generation bus with multiple integrated payloads, that when flown, would be a risk reduction to future ORS missions.
2. SpaceDev, Inc. Trailblazer spacecraft bus, originally developed under a Missile Defense Agency contract, which demonstrates a flexible, modular commercial bus design using off the shelf components.
3. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)/AFRL NanoSat-4, CUSat – a Space Test Program experiment consisting of two nanosatellites developed by Cornell University in partnership with the AFRL under the University Nanosatellite Program.

In addition to the ORS primary payload, Flight 003 will also carry a rideshare adapter experiment for ATSB of Malaysia (the primary customer for the following Falcon 1 launch, F1-004), and two CubeSat payloads.

About SpaceX

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

About Operationally Responsive Space

Established in May 2007, the U.S Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office operates from Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, and is committed to improving the nation's means to develop, acquire, field and employ space capabilities in shortened timeframes and more affordable ways.

ORS Office, contact 377th ABW Public Affairs at 505-246-6068.

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Falcon 1 Demonstration Flight 2 at liftoff, March 21, 2007, from the Kwajalein Atoll, Central Pacific. The flight reached space, and an altitude of 289 kilometers (180 miles). Credit: SpaceX.

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Visit SpaceX.com for more information.

Press Release: First SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle Remains on Schedule for Delivery to Cape Canaveral

SpaceX News for ZenPupDog

Press Release: First SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch Vehicle Remains on Schedule for Delivery to Cape Canaveral

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Hawthorne, CA – March 3, 2008 – Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) today announced its newly revised mission manifest listing twelve flights of its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles.

“We are on track to deliver our first Falcon 9 vehicle to Cape Canaveral by the end of 2008,” said Gwynne Shotwell, Vice President of Business Development for SpaceX. “In addition, we’re very pleased to have signed a significant new US government customer for our next Falcon 1 flight, and will be releasing details shortly.”

The full SpaceX mission manifest extends into 2011 and lists nine customers on twelve flights, including three demonstration flights of SpaceX’s new Dragon spacecraft for NASA as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition.

CUSTOMER	TARGET DATE	VEHICLE	LAUNCH SITE
US Government & ATSB	Q2 2008	Falcon 1	Kwajalein
ATSB (Malaysia)	Q3 2008	Falcon 1	Kwajalein
US Government	Q4 2008	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
MDA Corp. (Canada)	2009	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
Avanti Communications (UK)	2009	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
NASA COTS - Demo 1	2009	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
NASA COTS - Demo 2	2009	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
SpaceDev	2009	Falcon 1	Kwajalein
NASA COTS - Demo 3	2010	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral
MDA Corp. (Canada)	2010	Falcon 1	Kwajalein
Swedish Space Corp. (Sweden)	2010	Falcon 1	Kwajalein
Bigelow Aerospace	2011	Falcon 9	Cape Canaveral

Target date refers to delivery of the flight vehicle to the launch site. The actual launch date is dependent on a variety of factors, which may include regulatory approvals, launch range scheduling, weather, customer payload readiness and vehicle to launch pad integration.

About SpaceX

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

As winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competition, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for NASA. This will culminate in Dragon berthing with the International Space Station and returning safely to Earth. When the Shuttle retires in 2010, Falcon 9 / Dragon will have the opportunity to replace the Shuttle in providing both up and down transportation services to the Space Station.

NASA baffled by force acting on space probes

Space always follows Ninjas - dontchaknow? Resisting the Mall Ninja Meme...

LZP: NASA baffled by force acting on space probes

Five spacecraft experience unexpected anomalies in their motions

By Charles Q. Choi

updated 11:16 a.m. PT, Fri., Feb. 29, 2008

Mysteriously, five spacecraft that flew past the Earth have each displayed unexpected anomalies in their motions.

These newfound enigmas join the so-called "Pioneer anomaly" as hints that unexplained forces may appear to act on spacecraft.

A decade ago, after rigorous analyses, anomalies were seen with the identical Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft as they hurtled out of the solar system. Both seemed to experience a tiny but unexplained constant acceleration toward the sun.

A host of explanations have been bandied about for the Pioneer anomaly. At times these are rooted in conventional science — perhaps leaks from the spacecraft have affected their trajectories. At times these are rooted in more speculative physics — maybe the law of gravity itself needs to be modified.

Now Jet Propulsion Laboratory astronomer John Anderson and his colleagues — who originally helped uncover the Pioneer anomaly — have discovered that five spacecraft each raced either a tiny bit faster or slower than expected when they flew past the Earth en route to other parts of the solar system.

‘Humble and perplexed’
The researchers looked at six deep-space probes — Galileo I and II to Jupiter, the NEAR mission to the asteroid Eros, the Rosetta probe to a comet, Cassini to Saturn, and the Messenger craft to Mercury. Each spacecraft flew past our planet to either gain or lose orbital energy in their quests to reach their eventual targets.

In five of the six flybys, the scientists have confirmed anomalies.

"I am feeling both humble and perplexed by this," said Anderson, who is now working as a retiree. "There is something very strange going on with spacecraft motions. We have no convincing explanation for either the Pioneer anomaly or the flyby anomaly."

In the one probe the researchers did not confirm a noticeable anomaly with, Messenger, the spacecraft approached the Earth at about latitude 31 degrees north and receded from the Earth at about latitude 32 degrees south. "This near-perfect symmetry about the equator seemed to result in a very small velocity change, in contrast to the five other flybys," Anderson explained — so small no anomaly could be confirmed.

The five other flybys involved flights whose incoming and outgoing trajectories were asymmetrical with each other in terms of their orientation with Earth's equator.

For instance, the NEAR mission approached Earth at about latitude 20 south and receded from the planet at about latitude 72 south. The spacecraft then seemed to fly 13 millimeters per second faster than expected. While this is just one-millionth of that probe's total velocity, the precision of the velocity measurements was 0.1 millimeters per second, carried out as they were using radio waves bounced off the craft. This suggests the anomaly seen is real — and one needing an explanation.

The fact this effect seems most evident with flybys most asymmetrical with respect to Earth's equator "suggests that the anomaly is related to Earth's rotation," Anderson said.

As to whether these new anomalies are linked with the Pioneer anomaly, "I would be very surprised if we have discovered two independent spacecraft anomalies," Anderson told SPACE.com. "I suspect they are connected, but I really do not know."

Unbound idea
These anomalies might be effects we see with an object possessing a spacecraft's mass, between 660 and 2,200 pounds, Anderson speculated.

"Another thing in common between the Pioneer and these flybys is what you would call an unbound orbit around a central body," Anderson said. "For instance, the Pioneers are flying out of the solar system — they're not bound to their central body, the sun. For the other flybys, the Earth is the central body. These kinds of orbits just don't occur very often in nature — it could be when you get into an unbound orbit around a central body, something goes on that's not in our standard models."

The researchers are now collaborating with German colleagues to search for possible anomalies in the Rosetta probe's second flyby of the Earth on November 13.

"We should continue to monitor spacecraft during Earth flybys. We should look carefully at newly recovered Pioneer data for more evidence of the Pioneer anomaly," Anderson added. "We should think about launching a dedicated mission on an escape trajectory from the solar system, just to look for anomalies in its motion."

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Montana State University physicist Ronald Hellings, who did not participate in this study, said, "There's definitely something going on. Whether that's because of new physics or some problem with the model we have is yet to be worked out, as far as I know. A lot of people are trying to look into this."

Anderson and his colleagues will detail their latest findings in an upcoming issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.

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