Follow up news regarding the September 28, SpaceX launch of Falcon 1 Flight 4 from the Kwajalein Atoll sent by CEO Elon Musk.
“After a week spent reviewing data has confirmed that the flight went really well, including the coast and restart. The mood here at SpaceX is just ecstatic! This is the culmination of six years of hard work by a very talented team. It is also a great relief for me, who led the overall design of the rocket (not a role I expected to have when starting the company). I felt a little sheepish receiving the AIAA award for the most outstanding contribution to the field of space transportation two weeks before this flight.
“Orbit was achieved with the first burn terminating at 330.5 km altitude and 8.99 degree inclination. The goal for initial insertion was a 330 km altitude and a 9.0 degree inclination, so this was right on target! Accuracy far exceeded our expectations, particularly given that this was the first time Falcon 1 reached orbit.
The primary purpose of the second burn was to test the restart capability and then burn as long as possible. The upper stage coasted for 43.5 minutes and then burned for 6.8 seconds, which is 4 seconds longer than needed to circularize. Most of the burn was actually done sideways to avoid creating a highly elliptical orbit, hence a change in inclination to 9.3 degrees. The final orbit, confirmed by U.S. Space Command, was 621 km by 643 km. As an added bonus, we picked up several minutes of video and data from the upper stage when it passed over Kwajalein one orbit later, which showed the stage to be in good condition.”
The AIAA award comes from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), which presented five awards for key contributions to space science and technology during the AIAA SPACE 2008 Conference & Exposition, held September 9–11 at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California. Elon Musk, CEO and chief technology officer, SpaceX, Hawthorne, California, received the AIAA George Low Space Transportation Award presented for a timely outstanding contribution to the field of space transportation. Musk was recognized for his outstanding contribution to the development of commercial space transportation systems using innovative low-cost approaches.
