Start-Up Rocket Firm On Track for 2003 Launch

Brian Berger
Space News

March 31, 2003

Space Exploration Technologies, an El Segundo, Calif.-based start up developing a small launcher with internal funds, says it has customers lined up for its two initial flights.

Elon Musk, president of the 22-person company, said the Falcon remains on track to make its maiden launch by the end of 2003, provide Space Exploration Technologies - SpaceX for short - clears regulatory hurdles that include Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licensing and U.S. Air Force range safety certification.

"I am surprised at how smooth things have gone," Musk said. "I thought we would have encountered more issues than we have."

Musk started SpaceX in 2002 with no previous space industry experience. The 31-year-old entrepreneur is bankrolling the development project with money he made from two Internet ventures, including Pay-Pal, a World Wide Web-based payment services sold to the on-line auctioneer eBay last year for $1.5 billion.

Since going public with its rocket ambitions this past autumn, SpaceX has largely kept to its schedule. In March, the company hosted industry and government officials at its facilities for a program review and also completed an initial test firing of the Falcon's main engine.

Two customers - a U.S. government agency and a foreign country - have indicated they are willing to risk their payloads on the unproven rocket once it makes it to the launch pad, according to Musk. He declined to identify either customer, but a U.S. government official told Space News that Falcon's first payload is a Pentagon satellite.

Musk said the customers are interested in launching already-built payloads weighing roughly 250 kilograms apiece in late 2003 and early 2004.

The non-U.S. customer, Musk said, had been planning to use a Russian launcher that was not ideal for the intended orbit. The U.S. customer, he said, cannot afford any domestic launcher other than the Falcon, a partially reusable vehicle that SpaceX is offering for $6 million a flight.

The initial two-stage Falcon configuration, Musk said, will be able to loft up to 450 kilograms to low Earth orbit. A heavy-lift Falcon equipped with liquid-fueled strap-on boosters could boost 1,350 kilograms to that orbit.

Major components of the rocket are in production throughout the United States. The Falcon's pump-fed main engine, which will burn liquid oxygen and kerosene to produce 27,000 kilograms of thrust, completed an initial series of test firings March 12. The engine achieved 27,000 kilograms of thrust at 93 percent efficiency over a total of 18 seconds of firing. More testing is scheduled for the months ahead.
Musk said the rocket's recoverable first stage, in production at Spincraft of New Berlin, Wis., is nearly complete. The second stage and avionics harness are on track to be finished by July, he said.

SpaceX is also working on environmental impact assessments for two separate launch sites - Pad 3 West at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and Launch Complex 46 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Musk is anticipating a finding of no significant environmental impact.

SpaceX has also been laying the groundwork for FAA licensing, a prerequisite for launching commercial payloads. "We have been working with them and we think that they are making good progress," said FAA spokesman Chuck Kline.

Kline said the FAA decides on license applications within 180 days. Although SpaceX has not submitted its formal application, Kline said that should not delay the company's maiden launch. "Their first launch is for a [Department of Defense] payload which means they don't need a commercial license by then," Klein said.

While Musk is confident the Falcon will be finished in time for a 2003 debut, the development effort has encountered a few hiccups. In December, for example, the company's first two turbo pump fuel manifold designs did not make it through casting at Citation Corp., a Birmingham, Ala., foundry. And in January, SpaceX undertook a major redesign of its propellant tanks to shed some weight. The new tank design will also cost less to build, company officials said.

SpaceX has decided to use a proven flight-termination system, and that hardware will be one of the most expensive subsystems on the rocket, according to Musk. But the approach, he said, will save the company many months - perhaps even years - it would take to qualify new hardware to meet the Air Force's stringent range safety requirements.

Despite these changes, Musk said he still believes the rocket's development cost will stay under $100 million. "We will see what it really is when all is said and done," he said.

Musk made clear that it is his intention to take business away from Orbital Science Corp.'s air-launched Pegasus rocket. "I think Pegasus is unlikely to survive in the long term," Musk said. "If we deliver what we are promising…I don't see why someone would want to launch on a Pegasus."

The demand for small launchers like Pegasus in recent years has been anything but robust. Orbital Sciences spokesman Barron Beneski said four Pegasus launches are slated for this year. In 2002, there was one Pegasus launch, and in 2001, there were none.

Beneski would not say what Orbital Sciences charges for a Pegasus launch, but other industry officials said the price generally ranges from $18 million to $22 million.

Beneski also declined to comment on SpaceX. Musk said those prices are out of synch with the budgets usually available for small satellite programs.

In recent years, NASA has suspended several small satellite programs in large part because it was having a hard time justifying launching $5 million to $10 million spacecraft on rockets costing several times that.

Musk said there could be a lull in Falcon launch activity while the "machinery of government responds to the reality of a truly low-cost reusable launcher." Once that happens, Musk said, SpaceX expects to sell four or five launches a year.

Ultimately, Musk said, SpaceX plans to build a much larger rocket for which Falcon hardware would serve as second and third stages. That rocket, he said, would be targeted toward markets currently served by Arianespace, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin.