SpaceX Sends Malaysian Satellite Into Orbit
A young visionary rocket company seeking the job of sending U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station launched a Malaysian imaging satellite into orbit late on Monday.
At 11:35 p.m. EDT/0335 GMT on Tuesday, Space Exploration Technologies’ Falcon 1 rocket took off from Omelek Island in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Western Pacific carrying the 400-pound (180-kg) RazakSAT satellite, a Malaysian satellite designed and built by ATSB that carries a high-resolution camera.
High-resolution pictures of agricultural lands, forests, urban centers and other targets for commercial and government customers in Malaysia are taken by both black-and-white and color cameras on the spacecraft.
This flight marked the fifth performed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). Internet entrepreneur and PayPal founder Elon Musk founded the California based company in June 2002, investing $100 million of his own money.
The first three SpaceX launches in 2006, 2007 and 2008, did not quite make it to orbit.
Last September, its fourth launch had success sending a fake payload into orbit.
The Falcon 1 rocket, which can put a half-ton payload into orbit for about $8 million is not SpaceX’s only offering. They are also developing another partially reusable heavy-lift Falcon 9 rocket that can carry 11 tons to low-Earth orbit, or four tons to an orbit 22,300 miles above the planet, for about $40 million.
Musk believes the high prices of other space-launch services are partly driven by unnecessary bureaucracy. He has stated that one of his goals is to improve the cost and reliability of access to space.
“We’re the lowest prices on the market for comparable capabilities,” Musk boasted in a recent interview.
NASA is the firm’s biggest customer, which has reserved for more than half of SpaceX’s two-dozen missions coming up. The company has obtained contracts to develop and deliver a space station cargo vehicle.
It is also making bids for a $300 million contract addition to upgrade its Dragon capsule to ferry astronauts back and forth from the space station once the space shuttle fleet is retired next year by NASA. On April 22, 2008, NASA announced that it had awarded an IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity) Launch Services contract to SpaceX for Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launches. The contract will be worth between $20,000 and $1 billion, depending on the number of missions awarded.
“It’s a no-lose proposition for the taxpayer,” Musk assured. “If we don’t do what we say we’re going to do, we don’t get paid.”
The big debut flight of Falcon 9 is scheduled for October from a new launch complex at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
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