SpaceX Announces Launch Window Opens 7 pm Eastern Tonight!

SpaceX has just released an alert that the launch window for the third launch attempt of the Falcon 1 will open at 7 pm Eastern and continue through 12 am Eastern. They have use of the range through August 5th if they have to postpone the launch for any reason. The launch facilities are located in the Kwajalein Atoll, about 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii.

The launch will be webcast on their site www.spacex.com starting 30 minutes before the opening of the launch window.

The launch follows a successful test of their Falcon 9 rocket. They performed a nine engine firing of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle on July 31st and August 1st com completing a major milestone for their NASA COTS work to develop a cargo launcher in support of the International Space Station.

More details from their release below.

The primary customers for the Falcon 1 launch are the Department of Defense, Government of Malaysia and NASA. Falcon 1 is carrying a payload stack of three separating satellites that will orbit at an inclination of 9 degrees:

* The Trailblazer satellite was developed by SpaceDev of Poway, Calif., for the Jumpstart Program of DoD�s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, as a test platform to validate the hardware, software and processes of an accelerated microsatellite launch. Trailblazer is deployed from the Falcon 1 second stage shortly after the shut-down of the second stage engine, about 10 minutes into flight.

* Deploying four to eight minutes later will be two NASA small satellites: PRESat, a micro laboratory from NASA�s Ames Research Center, and then NanoSail-D, which will unfurl an ultra-thin solar sail, developed by NASA�s Marshall Space Flight Center, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center.

* The three separating satellites attach to the Falcon 1 second stage via the Secondary Payload Adaptor and Separation System, (SPASS), developed by ATSB, a company owned by the Government of Malaysia that develops and commercializes space technology. The SPASS was engineered by Space Access Technologies of Ashburn, Va.

See Also:

• Rumor: SpaceX Falcon 1 Rocket Will Launch Today
• SpaceX's Next Launch Will Carry NASA Solar Sail Experiment
• SpaceX: Why Else Would We Put Windows On A Cargo Vehicle?

Image Courtesy of SpaceX (previous Falcon 1 launch attempt)