The SpaceX Falcon 9 booster rocket has a tentative first test launch date of Friday, June 4, 2010 between the hours of 11 AM and 3 PM at the earliest from the dedicated commercial launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
The NewSpace company was hoping to have gotten a test flight in by now, but their work was pushed back several times, most recently because of delays with the launch of a Delta IV rocket earlier in May after four failed attempts.
If the Falcon 9 test proves successful, SpaceX will continue with a launch manifest to the International Space Station in the spring of 2011, months later than originally anticipated by NASA, [SpaceNews] but long before the space agency will have any likely government alternative.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, SpaceX won a $1.6 billion NASA contract to launch more than a dozen Falcon 9 booster rockets to resupply and carry cargo to the orbiting International Space Station. The firm envisions carrying astronauts to the orbiting laboratory by mid-decade with the Obama Administration betting on commercial space launch providers -like SpaceX, for space policy success.
The NewSpace company was hoping to have gotten a test flight in by now, but their work was pushed back several times, most recently because of delays with the launch of a Delta IV rocket earlier in May after four failed attempts.
If the Falcon 9 test proves successful, SpaceX will continue with a launch manifest to the International Space Station in the spring of 2011, months later than originally anticipated by NASA, [SpaceNews] but long before the space agency will have any likely government alternative.
Under the leadership of Elon Musk, SpaceX won a $1.6 billion NASA contract to launch more than a dozen Falcon 9 booster rockets to resupply and carry cargo to the orbiting International Space Station. The firm envisions carrying astronauts to the orbiting laboratory by mid-decade with the Obama Administration betting on commercial space launch providers -like SpaceX, for space policy success.
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