Falcon 1 Will Soar Like and Eagle

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has completed the qualification testing program of its Merlin 1C next gen liquid fueled rocket booster engine for use in the Falcon 1 rocket. Testing occurred at the SpaceX Texas Test Facility near Waco, Texas on a Merlin 1C configured for powering the first stage of a Falcon 1 rocket. After completing development testing in November of 2007, the qualification program began the final design feature process on a production engine, then on to the manufacturing. In the near future, Merlin will start the qualification process for the higher thrust and performance levels required by the Falcon 9 rocket. The company has plans to deliver the first Falcon 9 vehicle to Cape Canaveral by year’s end.

The single Merlin 1C will power SpaceX’s next Falcon 1 mission, scheduled to lift off in spring of 2008 from the SpaceX launch complex in the Central Pacific atoll of Kwajalein. The larger Falcon 9 uses nine Merlins on the first stage, and a single Merlin in vacuum configuration powers the Falcon 9 second stage. The Merlin 1C is an improved version of the Merlin 1A ablatively cooled engine and uses rocket propellant grade kerosene (RP-1), a refined form of jet fuel, to first cool the combustion chamber and nozzle before being combined with the liquid oxygen to create thrust. This cooling allows for higher performance without significantly increasing engine mass. In the Falcon 1 configuration, Merlin 1C has a thrust at sea level of 78,000 lbs, a vacuum thrust of 90,000 pounds and a vacuum specific impulse of 301 seconds. In generating this thrust, Merlin consumes 300 lbs/second of propellant and the chamber and nozzle; cooled by 90 lbs/sec of kerosene, are capable of absorbing 10 MW of heat energy. This is the first new American booster engine in ten years and only the second in more than a quarter of a century—Hawthorne, California