Falcon I, TacSat launch delayed by at least 2, maybe 3 months

I tried to send this yesterday, I'm sending it again.

Tom

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First TacSat launch delayed till March
01.04.05
Source: Government Computer News
by Susan M. Menke
The planned January debut of the Defense Department's first tactical
microsatellite has been postponed at least a month, according to the
vendor building a new, low-cost rocket to launch it.

The TacSat payload hasn't yet left the Naval Research Laboratory,
said Gwynne Shotwell, vice president of Space Exploration Technologies
Corp. of El Segundo, Calif. "This is our very first launch," she
said, and the delay is not because of the payload but because of final
engine tests of the $6 million, 70-foot Falcon I rocket.

Arthur Cebrowski, chief of the Pentagon's Office of Force
Transformation, and Peter Teets, Air Force undersecretary and head of
the National Reconnaissance Office, have championed TacSat as the
cornerstone of future battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance.

Individual commanders could control the microsatellite's sensors and
cameras via the Secret IP Router Network. [See GCN story.]

NRL designed the TacSat to orbit at 500 kilometers, or 300 miles.
Besides responding to SIPRnet control, it is supposed to demonstrate
automatic geolocation with other air and space assets.

The Falcon I rocket that will launch the microsatellite arrived in
October at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., towed on a trailer that
raised it vertically at the launch pad.

"That was a big milestone," said Dianne Molina, a spokeswoman for
the 2-year-old SpaceX. She said the rocket can be lowered again later
to mount the TacSat payload.

The Falcon I burns liquid oxygen and kerosene and has a recoverable
launch stage with a built-in parachute to slow its descent into the
Pacific Ocean.

According to a November reliability study conducted for SpaceX by
Futron Corp. of Bethesda, Md., the two-stage Falcon I design has an
expected failure rate of 1.78 percent, lower than for Atlas V and Delta
rockets and the space shuttle.

The study examined about 60 launch vehicle designs over the last 20
years using both solid and liquid fuels. Futron found that propulsion
system problems were responsible for more than half of all failures.
The second most common cause of failure was faulty separation during
the launch stage.