LOGAN, Utah--Space Exploration Technologies Corporation(SpaceX) of El Segundo, California is putting in place private rocketfacilities at a Kwajalein Atoll launch area in the western Pacific Ocean.
Yet the going has been toughfor the private start-up, bankrolled by Elon Musk, chairman and chief executiveofficer of SpaceX.
First, the group's hoped forpremier takeoff of the Falcon 1 booster at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California was stymied by an on-going delay of a Titan 4 rocket launch carrying aclassified payload. That booster--the last to fly from Vandenberg--remainsground-bound and won't be airborne until this October, if then.
The Falcon 1 at Vandenbergwas being readied to loft TacSat-1, a satellite built and integrated by theU.S. Naval Research Laboratory for the Pentagon's Office of ForceTransformation.
"It is just, I think, atravesty," Musk told SPACE.com in an interview here at the 19th AnnualConference on Small Satellites, sponsored by the American Institute ofAeronautics and Astronautics and Utah State University.
"It's like you build yourhouse...somebody else builds a house next to you and tells you to get out of yourhouse. Like, what the hell...after we've made that big investment and everything.We're going to fight that issue because it is just fundamentally unfair," Musksaid.
"We have had discussionswith SpaceX about the possibility of moving to SLC 4 to better serve andprotect all our launch partners, but no decisions have been made," Air ForceMaj. Todd Fleming, a Vandenberg spokesman, said in a written statement Aug 11."We look forward to building strong relationships with Space X, as well asother launch providers, as we work together to provide responsive launch capabilitiesfor our nation. Space X already conducted a successful test from Vandenberg,and we look forward to their future launches from here."
Musk said the U.S. Air Forcehas got to let the company launch from Vandenberg. "There's no two ways about itas far as I'm concerned...or pay for us to move to another pad."
"So they just can't renderthat investment zero," Musk said. "They are saying that Atlas 5 is moreimportant than Falcon 1, which is true from a national security standpoint," headded.
"But the fact of the matteris...that doesn't mean they can completely shaft us," Musk said.
A projected Kwajaleinliftoff date for the firm's two-stage Falcon 1 rocket on its maiden flight islate September.
The customer for thismission is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The rocket'spayload is a FalconSat-2, part of the U.S. Air Force Academy's satelliteprogram. Once in orbit, FalconSat-2 is designed to measure space plasmaphenomena, which can adversely affect space-based civil and militarytelecommunications.
"Our nominal launch date isSeptember 30, but given that this is a new launch vehicle from a new pad, somedelays are likely," Musk said.
"If everything works welland we're all good to go, it passes all the tests, and we are confident ofsuccess, we will launch on September 30," said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's VicePresident of Avionics. "If there's anything not sure about it, we'll keeptesting. Basically, this is it. We've got to get this right," he told SPACE.comhere at the small satellite meeting.
"It looks like a simple rocket,"Koenigsmann said, but Falcon 1 is a very complex system. At present, there areno plans to static fire the rocket prior to launch, he said, as had previouslybeen done at the Vandenberg launch site.
A downside is high corrosionat Kwajalein, Musk pointed out. "I don't think there's a place in the worldwith more corrosion. It's the perfect environment of right temperature,humidity and salt spray," he said, with conditions being combated in wayssimilar to precautions taken with Florida-based rocket infrastructure.
"Although, ultimately, we dosatisfy all of them, it just takes a lot of time when there are so many cooksin the kitchen," Musk explained.
Although the Falcon 1 hasyet to fly, Musk said the customers now signing up for Falcon 1 "like what theysee."
"If we have threeconsecutive failures...it's not clear to me that we know what we're doing andmaybe we should go out of business," Musk said.
To date, total investment byMusk in SpaceX activities is below $100 million. "Basically, what I'd like todo, after first launch, is look at raising some external funding," he said.
In earlier entrepreneurialefforts, Musk co-founded PayPal, a leading electronic payment system, servingas the company's chairman and CEO. He was the largest shareholder until thecompany was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002.
In the next few weeks, Musksaid, plans beyond Falcon 5 are to be announced, "and some of them are going tobe some pretty significant announcements...it's going to make a big splash."
"I'm less interested in theMoon," Musk said. "I think we saw that movie in the 1960s...it's a 60's re-run. Aremake is never as good as the original."
The primary objective, Musksaid, should be establishing a self-sustaining civilization on Mars. "At thatpoint we become a multi-planet species and all sorts of things are possible. Somy goal with SpaceX is to help make that happen," he added.
"Falcon 1 is just our testvehicle...our first foray. It's not the end game. It is the beginning of thebeginning," Musk concluded.
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