SpaceX delays launch
Once again, company must push back demo of rocket
SpaceX’s planned summer demonstration launch of the first Falcon 9 rocket has been delayed to the fall.
A combination of technical work and lack of documentation for the Air Force, which manages safety on the Eastern Range, created the delay. The launch has been scheduled for July and now will occur no sooner than October.
“It’s basically dealing with the complexities associated with lifting a new rocket off from a new launch site,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is the nine-engine version of the Falcon 1, which failed three times before successfully reaching orbit from an atoll in the central Pacific.
Before the Falcon 9’s maiden flight, SpaceX must test the engines further, integrate them on the rocket and return the components to Cape Canaveral, Shotwell said. The rocket was assembled at Launch Complex 40 at the Cape and raised for several days in January.
She added that the company, owned by Internet tycoon Elon Musk, must also produce reams of documentation to satisfy safety requirements for the 45th Space Wing, commanded by Brig. Gen. Edward Bolton, a veteran of many launches.
“There is a huge amount of documentation that gets passed to the range and lots of meetings, and that process just takes a long time,” Shotwell said. Col. Scott Henderson with the 45th Launch Group said SpaceX has not yet presented a plan documenting the Falcon 9’s self-destruct capability, which is needed before a launch can be OK’d.
Overall, he said, the company was doing well meeting the technical and safety guidelines.
Shotwell said that as a commercial launch company, SpaceX hopes to launch quickly after bringing the Falcon 9 to the Cape Canaveral in September or early October. The first flight will be a demonstration without a payload, but SpaceX has a list of customers waiting for the successful testing of the low-cost rocket.
“We would love to liftoff as quickly as we can thereafter,” Shotwell said. “We don’t get paid to sit on the ground.”