Space Task Force fans, Tim and I have been extremely busy this summer, each with a ton of projects. I'm getting ready to teach a class, and Tim is working on a variety of covert projects (hey Tim, usually I'm the one operating undercover).

You can check out my latest project over on www.sharktaskforce.com. Tim's latest work over at www.skyfirelab.com. More of Tim's work will be seen in just a few months in Orlando at ISDC 2009. Very exciting, ISDC 2009, it will be the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the moon.

40 years. Wow. Time to get started and go back. Space is not just a concept -- it's real. It's also waiting for us.

In the coming months, the SpaceTaskForce will be back with all the exciting developments to date.

One quick note to my friends at SpaceX: You will get there - I know it in my gut. Thank you for blazing the trail.

Okay, don't want to take up too much of your time -- we'll be back very soon.

George C. Schellenger
Columbia, August 2008

SpaceX Sets August 2 for Falcon 1 launch
First Privately Developed Liquid Fuel Rocket to Orbit

HAWTHORNE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has scheduled the launch of the Falcon 1 Flight 3 mission for Saturday, August 2nd. The launch window will open at 4:00 p.m. (PDT) / 7:00 p.m. (EDT) and remain open for five hours. If launch is delayed for any reason, SpaceX has range availability to resume countdown through August 5.

Lift-off of the vehicle will occur from SpaceX’s Falcon 1 launch site at the Kwajalein Atoll, about 2500 miles southwest of Hawaii. Falcon 1 launch facilities are situated on Omelek Island, part of the Reagan Test Site (RTS) at United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA) in the Central Pacific.

Designed from the ground up by SpaceX at headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., Falcon 1 is a two-stage, liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene powered launch vehicle. The first stage is powered by a single SpaceX Merlin 1C Regenerative engine – flying for the first time on this Flight 3 mission. A “hold before liftoff” system enhances reliability by permitting all systems to be verified as functioning nominally before launch is initiated. The Falcon 1 second stage is powered by a single SpaceX Kestrel engine.

Falcon 1 is the first new orbital rocket in more than a decade. Merlin is the first new American hydrocarbon engine for an orbital booster to be flown in more than 40 years and only the second new American engine of any kind in more than a quarter century. After achieving orbit, Falcon 1 will be the first privately developed, liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.