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If all goes well, a five-hour countdown will end Tuesday with the Falcon rocket's first-stage engine firing - and then shutting down after a few seconds, the first time in recent memory that a flight-readiness firing has taken place at Vandenberg. A spunky young firm, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has developed the Falcon rocket as a low-cost way to get satellites to space. "It's all bragging till you back it up," said Tim Buzza, SpaceX vice president of test and launch operations. A five-hour countdown will kick off at 8 a.m. Tuesday with the quick firing expected by 1 p.m., assuming no weather-related or technical issues arise. Internet pioneer Elon Musk, who founded the electronic payment system PayPal, formed SpaceX to reduce costs of getting satellites to space. He named the rocket for the Millennium Falcon spaceship in the "Star Wars" movies. Over the past two years, the company has conducted multiple engine test firings of its Merlin first-stage and Kestrel second-stage in Texas, alleviating anxiety and adding confidence as next week's test approaches, according to Buzza. "It's not the first time to light the candle," Buzza said. "We view it as a very good thing to do .... But we don't have to let go (of the rocket). We look at it as a chance to add reliability to our first launch." A number of systems will keep the rocket in place and ensure safety during the test, including four huge clamps and an absence of batteries. Overall, the test serves as a way to ensure that various parts, ranging from systems feeding propellant to the rocket and software issuing commands, are ready to go. Engineers expect to have loads of data to wade through before the first launch later this summer. The El Segundo-based company now has some 110 employees, an increase from about 40 in early 2004. Even with growth, the company continues to hold weekly lunches and encourage people to sit with someone they don't know, according to Dianne Molina, SpaceX spokeswoman. "We want to keep the feel of a small company where who you are as a person is as important at SpaceX," Molina said. In the past few years, SpaceX has set up shop on an abandoned launch pad, Space Launch Complex-3 West, on south Vandenberg. When they arrived, the site didn't have much - no water or electricity or even doors on the remaining concrete building. They've added that and more. "It was pretty much gutted," Molina said. They've maintained an austere launch facility to keep costs down, housing the rocket horizontally in a shelter reminiscent of a catering tent some 100 yards from the launch stand. Even with a successful test Tuesday, a first launch must wait until after the West Coast's final Titan 4 launch because - in the event of a catastrophic failure - the military doesn't want the Falcon's fledgling flight going over its nearby launch pad. SpaceX expects to be ready to launch within five days of the neighboring rocket's departure, according to Anne Chinnery, who oversees the launch site and safety matters. "We're going to be here ready and waiting for them to go," she said. However, if Titan 4's launch date slips, SpaceX says it may move the Falcon's maiden liftoff to the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean. SpaceX, along with chief competitor Orbital Sciences Corp., recently received an "indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity" contract from the Air Force that could be worth up to $100 million. Between now and 2010, the Air Force plans to order rockets to ferry small satellites to space. "It's a huge vote of confidence for a company just shy of its third anniversary," Molina said.
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