Falcon 1, The World's Lowest Cost Rocket to Orbit |
Falcon 1, The World's Lowest Cost Rocket to Orbit |
Nov 19 2005, 06:28 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but here goes:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=18353 http://www.spacex.com/ Looking forward to launch videos... -------------------- |
|
|
Mar 21 2007, 03:02 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
For a test flight, it was certainly not a complete failure. They demonstrated a lot of good things, and the test of the first stage seems to have been almost completely successful.
If this was an opreational launch, though, it would have been a complete failure, no matter how well the first stage worked. The paying customer would have had his/her expensive satellite dumped into the ocean. That's the real definition of success or failure -- did you deliver the package where the customer wanted it to go? As tempting as SpaceX's pricing seems to be, I know that if I had a payload that I really needed to place into orbit, I would definitely wait until the Falcons started flying successfully before I spent any money on them. Then again, I wouldn't buy the first model year of, say, a fuel-cell-powered car or a car with a hydrogen engine, either. I'd wait to see how well they work and what the service and maintenance issues *really* are, not just what the salespeople want me to believe they are... -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
|
|
|
Mar 21 2007, 03:04 PM
Post
#3
|
|
Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I know that if I had a payload that I really needed to place into orbit, I would definitely wait until the Falcons started flying successfully before I spent any money on them. Quite agree - but if I had a cheap mission that was cash limited to the point of launching on a cheap Falcon in Q1-08, or not launching at all...I'd go for the Falcon. Doug |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 1st June 2024 - 10:51 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |