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THE SPACEX FALCON WILL CHALLENGE ORBITAL SCIENCES
AND BOEING BRING IT ON!
The SpaceX Falcon rocket project will specifically target Boeing, by offering the SpaceX Falcon V booster for 60-70% less than Boeing can fly its Delta II and newer Delta IV Medium Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, said Elon Musk, SpaceX chairman and CEO. SpaceX plans to pursue Boeing by using existing technology in innovative ways on its Falcon V first stage, combined with a powerful and proven Pratt & Whitney RL10 hydrogen/oxygen-powered second stage. As two Falcon V designs move forward, the smaller Falcon I proof-of-concept launcher (see cover) is making progress in ground tests and moving toward first flight as early as May at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The Falcon I development is funded in part by the Defense Dept.'s Office of Force Transformation because the Pentagon believes if SpaceX is successful, it could have a major "transformational effect" on how military space operations are launched. [Corrective note from SpaceX: the Defense Dept has purchased the first launch, but has not funded any part of the development.] SpaceX wants to fly up to three Falcon I missions in 2004 at a $5.9-million list price per flight to compete directly against Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC) in the small-payload market as it develops the heavier capability to take on Boeing. As the Falcon I moves into service, the first launch of the initial Falcon V, with oxygen/kerosene engines in both stages (below), is set for 2005, followed in 2006 by the geosynchronous transfer version of the RL10 upper stage. Falcon I will demonstrate innovative technologies like a "pressure-assisted stabilization" tank design, a unique common tank bulkhead to save weight and a lithium-aluminum upper stage, along with in-house-built engines to separate the company from the traditional higher cost contractor pool. SpaceX is "attacking the culture" of the entrenched launcher contracting structure, which at times has resisted even simple innovative changes, said Michael Griffin, who has just been appointed head of the Space Dept. at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. "The importance of a successful effort on Musk's part is that the space industry needs 'existence proof' that cheaper, more efficient launch vehicle design and operation is possible," Griffin said. He is noted for championing innovation at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization and was previously NASA's chief engineer. He has also headed the In-Q-Tel Inc. technology company. Starting with the first flight this summer, the vehicle's first stage will be reusable. After propelling the second stage and payload to 56 mi. and Mach 9, a 75-ft. parachute will be blasted out of the first stage nose by a 10,000-lb.-thrust mortar. The chute will lower the vehicle to a splashdown 500 mi. off Baja California, where it will be recovered for $50,000 by the crew of the salvage tug Aahu. The parachute system has been designed by Irvin Aerospace, the same company that builds the shuttle solid rocket booster recovery system. With Boeing in its sights, SpaceX ironically wanted to validate its own Falcon I calculations against high-quality Boeing Delta hardware and found a Boeing-discarded Delta II interstage section in a Hollywood, Calif., junkyard on which to make those calculations. The Falcon is California's "other" space program, the first being Burt Rutan's quest to propel a human crew at about Mach 3 to the lowest edge of space (about 60 mi.) and then fall back to Earth for a safe landing. Rutan may take the X-Prize by sending a privately funded piloted reusable spacecraft into suborbital space and has already captured the attention of news media looking for stick-and-rudder analogies. But Musk is out to capture market share while making direct space-related technological progress toward reduced launch costs. Musk believes Rutan is not solving many technological problems related to the cost and realities of accelerating not to just Mach 3 but to Mach 25 to reach real space--orbital flight well above 100 mi. The SpaceX Falcon I small launcher program has been viewed by many as simply a competitor to the Orbital Sciences Pegasus for 1,500-lb.-class payloads. The Falcon I is that. But it is more fundamentally a program that can transition SpaceX hardware into the Falcon V program for payloads in the 5-10-ton class, much heavier than the initial Falcon I can carry. Pratt would have nothing to lose in teaming with SpaceX for the Falcon V. Its RL10s are already on the Delta IV and the Lockheed Martin Atlas V and any market share gained by RL10-equipped Falcon Vs will be just as important to Pratt as market share on the Delta or Atlas. Musk said while Falcon I will be the "meat and potatoes" business for SpaceX, the real "sweet spot" in the market for his business plan will be the Falcon V. The vehicle will use a five-engine cluster ultimately generating 500,000 lb. of liftoff thrust. It will be a growth version of the single-engine 72,000-lb.-liftoff-thrust Falcon I nearing first flight. In addition to the Falcon I, there will be two Falcon V versions priced differently: *A $12-million Falcon V to LEO: The initial version is to fly in 2005 with oxygen/kerosene first and second stages to loft up to 10,000-lb. payloads into low-Earth orbit (LEO) for about $12 million. It will use five Merlin engines in the first stage and two Kestrel engines in the second stage (see p. 49). *A $20-million Falcon V to GTO: The Pratt RL10-equipped upper stage is planned to be operational by late 2006 for launching 10,000-lb. payloads into much higher geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and 20,000 lb. into LEO for about $20 million. In contrast, Delta IV prices for these capabilities run $60-80 million. "The Falcon V is being designed to dominate the Delta Medium- and Delta Medium Plus-class market," Musk said. Proprietary engineering and cost discussions between SpaceX and Pratt & Whitney for integration of the RL10 with the upper stage and launch of the Falcon V vehicles from Cape Canaveral have been underway for some time. "Falcon I is something we can get to the market fast" for smaller payloads, but also as the foundation for a much larger commercial launcher operating at a much lower price than traditional competitors, Musk said. And Musk believes Boeing's Medium and Medium-Plus EELV operations are vulnerable to genuine cost competition as long as the Falcon proves as reliable as it is designed to be. Boeing acknowledges at the CEO level that it is somewhat vulnerable. In an interview with Aviation Week & Space Technology, Harry Stonecipher, Boeing's chief executive, noted problems in "execution" of the Delta IV program aside from market forces that affect the whole industry (AW&ST Feb. 16, p. 40). "[It's a $1-billion market, and] you should be able to execute and make money," he said. But the Delta IV program is not. And the U.S. Air Force sanctions on Boeing following the illegal transfer of Lockheed Martin documents to the company by wayward Boeing employees continues to hurt the Delta IV project. "You cannot believe this isn't going to taint us. It damages the heck out of our relationships," Stonecipher said. A federal investigation of Boeing is continuing, and if additional charges are filed, they would further exacerbate Boeing's vulnerability to the Atlas V, let alone the Falcon startup project. SpaceX wants to take advantage of Boeing vulnerabilities by simply producing a booster much cheaper than the Delta IV. Although the Falcon V could also be a competitor to the Atlas V, the Atlas has somewhat higher weight capabilities than the Falcon, leading SpaceX to focus on Boeing's Delta II and Delta IV Medium line as its primary adversary. If SpaceX is successful with innovative low-cost technology, it will have a profound effect on existing contractors and open the way for truly new low-cost commercial access to space. The U.S. Air Force is watching closely. On the small-payload-market side "if Musk with Falcon I can provide a few successful [small satellite] launches for $6 million, why would anyone in government want to, or even be allowed to, buy a Pegasus," said Griffin, who once served as chief technical officer for Orbital Sciences. The argument is extendable to other vehicle competitors if Musk is first successful in the small market and then upgrades his own product, Griffin said. And that is exactly how SpaceX wants to get from the Falcon I to the Falcon V. SpaceX has the objective of flying by 2010 about six Falcon Is and 4-6 Falcon Vs per year. Even one or two payloads annually taken away from Orbital Sciences by Falcon Is or from Boeing by Falcon Vs would have a deep impact on the annual profit margins of those launcher operations. Cape Canaveral would be the primary launch site for Falcon Vs going to geosynchronous transfer orbit and Vandenberg for high-inclination missions. But SpaceX will fly many of its Falcon I equatorial missions from Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands in the mid-Pacific. Lying directly on the equator, Omelek gives Falcon I much better performance than going equatorial from Cape Canaveral. And Falcon I's simple pad concept avoids the need for major infrastructure. The satellite market, including at least one Asia-Pacific nation, is also beginning to respond to the program, said Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president for business development who previously spent 10 years with The Aerospace Corp. "The launch manifest for the next year is looking extremely good with strong interest expressed for five Falcon I launches and three Falcon Vs," she said. Three of the Falcon Is are U.S. Defense Dept. missions, while one is commercial and another is from a foreign customer. Two of the Falcon V launches are sponsored by the Defense Dept. and another is commercial, Shotwell said. Defense Dept. payloads include Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Research Laboratory missions. Musk said that beyond expressions of interest, a U.S.-based commercial satellite customer has put down a formal deposit to launch a payload from Vandenberg on the first flight of the Falcon V now set for Nov. 1, 2005. The first SpaceX user conference has also just been held in Los Angeles, and customers are watching for success in SpaceX engine static firings and overall vehicle structural tests leading toward first flight. While a protoflight vehicle has been completed and may be used for the second mission, both a qualification testing vehicle and the first flight vehicle are in fabrication in El Segundo, Calif. SpaceX is building the initial vehicle in a 25,000-sq.-ft. former logistics warehouse near Los Angeles International Airport and has leased an additional 20,000-sq.-ft. facility just down the street from the first. In addition, full duration main engine firings with flight-like tankage are underway this month at a former U.S. Navy test facility near McGregor, Tex. Those are essentially full first stage ignition and flight simulations. Full scale structural testing of the qualification vehicle is to be underway in April as the first flight unit is completed in the SpaceX plant and readied for placement on Vandenberg Space Launch Complex SLC-3 West, formerly an Atlas pad. A flight readiness firing of the first vehicle's engine on the pad is slated for about two weeks before its mission. The vehicle uses a hold-down system that for real missions will enable launcher computers to check performance before releasing the vehicle to flight. If there are any abnormal engine parameters, the computers will safely shut down the vehicle on the pad. THE FALCON "pressure-assisted stabilization" design, unlike the Atlas, does not need pressurization to hold its structural shape even when unfueled, but unlike Delta does not need a heavy interstage section and other rigidity features. Rigidity and weight savings are gained using a common bulkhead of proprietary design that separates the oxygen and kerosene propellants while maintaining rigidity. A patent is pending on the bulkhead technology. A lithium-aluminum second stage also saves hundreds of pounds of weight compared with more traditional all-aluminum designs. The 70-ft.-long Falcon I will weigh about 60,000 lb. fueled, and combined with the Merlin, will have an overall propellant to mass ratio of 94% "which is extremely good for a launch vehicle," Musk said. The Falcon V will be at least 95 ft. tall and weigh 286,000 lb. The initial five-engine Falcon V will lift off on about 357,000 lb. thrust, but the Merlin will be upgraded so by the time the RL10-powered upper stage is ready, the vehicle will lift off on 500,000 lb. thrust, somewhat comparable to an Atlas/Centaur. Two of the biggest technology challenges SpaceX has faced are the development of aluminum-lithium welding techniques for the upper stage and development of the main engine turbopump. The first Falcon I flight vehicle will use an all-aluminum upper stage to allow the lithium-related welding technology to mature, Musk said. Spincraft plants in North Billerica, Mass., and New Berlin, Wis., are fabricating the stage tankage. The Merlin first- and second-stage engines have progressed well. The first-stage Merlin, operating at 760 psi., is pump-fed and will fire for about 170 sec. The pressure-fed 7,500-lb.-thrust second stage, operating at only 150 psi., is to fire about 400 sec. for final payload injection to orbit. Except for valves, most of the engine hardware has been designed by SpaceX in-house. All the first-stage engine hardware is designed to be reusable except for the nozzle ablator. By adapting existing technology but improving upon it, Musk believes SpaceX has developed an advanced first stage turbopump better than any of its size that has flown before on other programs. THE PUMP, fabricated by turbomachinery company Barber-Nichols, weighs only 150 lb. but enables the engine to generate 85,000 lb. thrust in a vacuum. Half of the single-shaft unit pumps liquid oxygen, while the other half kerosene. It also is the power source for the thrust vector control system, avoiding a separate hydraulic system. SpaceX has been trying to improve one liquid oxygen parameter in the pump, the "suction specific speed" at the oxygen impeller. Engineers have two new designs, either of which should work, Musk said. Unlike other current U.S. boosters, the Falcon V with five SpaceX Merlin engines will have an engine-out capability much like the Wernher von Braun Saturn vehicles of the 1960s. That means even with up to three engine failures, the vehicle's remaining powerplants can achieve velocity and altitude targets to make orbit. The Rocketdyne RS-68 engine in the Delta IV is a superb new powerplant, but as a single engine, any premature cutoff could send a Delta IV into the ocean. In addition to the existing Falcon I and V features, Musk said SpaceX has "a long-term interest" in making the Falcon V upper stage and the first stage recoverable. He has also held formal discussions with NASA about using later versions for manned missions such as to the International Space Station. With that in mind, the avionics and other parameters of the Falcon V will be man-rated from the beginning, Musk said. In Musk's spartan cubicle at SpaceX hangs a large picture that illustrates
his competitive nature and what SpaceX wants to do to OSC and Boeing--it's
of the boxer Mohammad Ali decking an opponent.
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In
a move to attack the "high-cost culture" of the U.S. launch
industry, the aggressive new SpaceX commercial rocket company is enlisting
the help of Pratt & Whitney to take market share away from Boeing
for commercial and military geosynchronous orbit missions. 
