|
Falcon-1
Falcon 1 was a two-stage small-lift launch vehicle that was operated from 2006 to 2009 by SpaceX, an American aerospace manufacturer. On September 28, 2008, Falcon 1 became the first private spaceflight, privately developed fully liquid-fueled launch vehicle to successfully reach orbit. The Falcon 1 used liquid oxygen, LOX/RP-1 for both stages, the first stage powered by a single pump-fed SpaceX Merlin, Merlin engine, and the second stage powered by SpaceX's pressure-fed SpaceX Kestrel, Kestrel vacuum engine. The vehicle was launched a total of five times. After three failed launch attempts, Falcon 1 achieved orbit on its #Fourth flight, fourth attempt in September 2008 with a Ratsat, mass simulator as a payload. On July 14, 2009, Falcon 1 made its second successful flight, delivering the Malaysian RazakSAT satellite to orbit on SpaceX's first commercial launch (fifth and final launch overall). While SpaceX had announced an enhanced variant, the Falcon 1e, following this flig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Small-lift Launch Vehicle
A small-lift launch vehicle is a rocket orbital launch vehicle that is capable of lifting or less (by NASA classification) or under (by Roscosmos classification) of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). The next larger category is medium-lift launch vehicles. The first small-lift launch vehicle was the Sputnik rocket, launched by the Soviet Union, which was derived from the R-7 Semyorka ICBM. On 4 October 1957, the Sputnik rocket was used to perform the world's first satellite launch, placing the Sputnik 1 satellite into a low Earth orbit. The US responded by attempting to launch the Vanguard rocket. However, the Vanguard TV3 launch attempt failed, with the 31 January 1958 launch of the Explorer 1 satellite using the Juno I rocket being the first successful US orbital launch. The Vanguard I mission was the second successful US orbital launch. This was the start of the space race. Since the late 1950s, small-lift launch vehicles have continued launching payloads into orbits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |