Can they close the gap? It’s possible (though it seems unlikely) that they could have a successful Falcon 9 launch before a successful Falcon 1 launch. They don’t seem to be letting Falcon 1 problems slow down the Falcon 9 schedule.
5 thoughts on “SpaceX To The Rescue?”
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After their most recent launch failure, SpaceX announced that they intended to perform a test launch before trying to lift another payload. That sounds prudent to me. They also mentioned they could attempt another launch before the end of September. Has anyone heard of an impending SpaceX launch?
I certainly wish them well.
If SpaceX is successful with their Falcon 9 and Dragon programs (especially the crewed one), I can’t help but wonder how Congress would view NASA taking years and billions of dollars on the Ares I and Orion.
If Dragon flies I think Constellation is dead. Congress is pretty inept and beholden to entrenched interests, but competition for Federal spending is fierce and I just don’t see Congress funding NASA launches at a $1B a go when an American company is offering the same service at 1/10th the price. That’s just red meat to anyone looking to divert that funding elsewhere.
I would say even more: the Falcon 1 program is subservent to Falcon 9. They delayed by several months (and ultimately doomed) Flight 003 just so Merlin 1C could be flown. This is an example of tangible and significant hurt done to Falcon 1 for the sake of Falcon 9. Unfortunately, customer satellites were caught into it.
Don’t be so sure that some of those customers weren’t planning/hoping for launch failure. Space News had an article not long ago about one of those “great successes” on the latest Falcon 1.
Whenever SpaceX builds a space station they should call it either: The Aviary, Spaviary (Space-Aviary), Space Station Aviomos (Aviary-Cosmos), The Interstellar Lair, The Galactic Roost, or the Positive Pressure Thinga-ma-jig (PPTmj).