Rocket aims for low-cost flights (BBC)

With the relatively low price of $6.7m (£3.8m) per flight, the Falcon 1 will set a new worldwide low for satellite launch costs, it makers claim.
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If successful, it would make Falcon 1 the first privately developed, liquid-fuel rocket to make it to orbit.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp - or SpaceX as it is more commonly referred to - was founded by Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, the electronic payment system sold to the online auction giant Ebay.
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The largest, the 53m-long Falcon 9, is scheduled to launch in late 2007, and should be able to carry about 25,000kg into low-Earth orbits. This would put it in a similar class to current American vehicles such as the Delta 4 or Atlas 5, and the European Ariane 5.
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more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4698736.stm

Your PayPal dollars at work!

SpaceX: Falcon 1 stayed in powered flight for about a minute

Friday, March 24, 2006; Posted: 6:30 p.m. EST (23:30 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A partly reusable commercial rocket developed by a California entrepreneur failed during its maiden launch from a Pacific island Friday, a spokeswoman said.

Space Exploration Technology's Falcon 1, designed to carry payloads to orbit at a low cost, lifted off from Kwajalein Atoll about 2:35 p.m. PST, but a Webcast provided by the company immediately lost its picture.

Spokeswoman Gwynn Shotwell told reporters on a conference call that there was about a minute of powered flight.

"We do know that the vehicle did not succeed after that," she said. "Clearly this is a setback but we're in this for the long haul."
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/03/24/private.rocket.ap/index.html

we really need a cheaper and safer way to get into orbit. At least they aren't giving up.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

The idea goes back to Tsiolkovsky (doesn't everything?). The wikipedia entry mentions Arthur C. Clarke's novel "Fountains of Paradise" but not Charles Sheffield's "Web Between the Worlds", published nearly simultaneously, which takes the idea further, describing the "bolo" as well as the "orbital elevator". Even Clarke admitted Sheffield's suggested construction approach was much better than his (which was really improbable).

This has become a fairly standard fixture among "hard" science fiction authors, including Kim Stanley Robinson (elevators on moon, Mars) and Gregory Benford (orbital bolo). Can't remember who's written stories with a "mass fountain". See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_elevator_in_fiction

A fire fed by a fuel leak caused the failure of a commercial rocket seconds into its maiden launch, the company that built it has confirmed.
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The unexplained fuel leak occurred 25 seconds into the launch near the top of the main engine on the rocket's first stage, SpaceX's founder said.

"Falcon was executing perfectly on all fronts until fire impaired the first-stage pneumatic system," Mr Musk explained.

The fire cut a helium pneumatic system, and when pneumatic pressure fell, a safety function within the valves forced them to close, shutting down the main engine 29 seconds into the flight, he added.

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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4848782.stm