Falcon 5

SPACE X, FALCON 5

Space X est la 3eme compagnie fondée par l'industriel millionnaire Elon Musk, après Paypall (1,5 milliards $) et le logiciel Zip2 (300 millions $). Space X (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) développe depuis 2003 une famille de lanceurs spatiaux capable de réduire de façon significative le coût de l'accès à l'espace dans un facteur de 10. La firme a ses installations en Californie du Sud, près de l'aéroport de Los Angeles et au Texas pour la partie développement moteur et tests de structures. Avec les lanceurs Falcon 1, 5 et 9, Space X veut offrir un service de lancement de toute capacité, de l'orbite basse à la GEO, avec toute les inclinaisons possibles.

Comme le Falcon 1, le Falcon 5 est un lanceur à deux étages à propergols liquides (RP1 et LOX) utilisant les mêmes éléments architecturaux. Le premier étage d'un diamètre de 3,7 m utilise 5 moteurs Merlin et est entièrement récupérable. Le second étage qui devait être équipé de deux moteurs Kestrel et maintenant équipé d'un moteur Merlin. Ce changement permet de gagner en masse dans la conception de l'étage (réduction de l'épaisseur des réservoirs, pas de réservoirs d'hélium pour la pressurisation). Le moteur Merlin 2 utilisé est plus puissant que le Merlin 1 (40 tonnes). L'inter-étage et la coiffe sont fabriqué en fibre de carbone.

Orbite	Charges utiles
200 km, 28.5 deg	6020 kg
400 km, 51 deg	5450 kg
700 km, SSO	4780 kg
GTO, 9 deg	1920 kg
Vitesse d'évasion	1200 kg

About eighteen months ago, a customer approached SpaceX with launch mass and fairing volume needs that exceeded the Falcon 5. We iterated on several different solutions, including upgrading the Merlin engine thrust and adding liquid or solid strap on boosters. All the options held significant drawbacks in cost, schedule or reliability, except one – a nine engine first stage.

By adding an additional four engines on the base and stretching the tanks, we were able to achieve a payload of approximately ten imperial tons to low Earth orbit, which is slightly greater than that of the Boeing Delta IV Medium. Going further and adding two first stages as liquid strap on boosters, like Delta IV Heavy, allowed us to place about 25 tons into LEO – more than any launch vehicle in use today.

This is very significant as it allows SpaceX to lift the full range of commercial and military satellites, as well as service the Space Station with considerably more cargo. It also maximally leverages our investment in avionics, guidance & control, structural design, launch infrastructure and the Merlin engine. Our strategy of using the Merlin engine throughout the Falcon product line is similar to Southwest’s strategy of using only 737s throughout its fleet. However, in our case we get economies of scale in both manufacturing and servicing of the engine.

Falcon-5/-9 is a liquid fueled orbital launch vehicle for medium to heavy sized missions, which is currently under development at SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.). It is techonologically based on the Falcon-1 launch vehicle. Both stages are Kerosene / LOX fueled.

The first stage, which will be reusable after recovery by parachutes, is to be powered by 5 or 9 of the SpaceX built Merlin engines. The upper stage will use a single Merlin engine and will also be reusable. The Falcon-5 is offered with a 3.6 m fairing, while the larger Falcon-9 can also use a 5.2 m fairing.

Planned launch sites are Omelek Island for low inclination launches and Vandenberg SLC-3W for high inclination launches. A Cape Canaveral launch pad is also considered for launching.

Version	Stage 1	Stage 2	Stage 3
Falcon-5	Stage 1 / 5 Merlin-1B	Stage 2 / 1 Merlin-1	-
Falcon-9	Stage 1 / 9 Merlin-1B	Stage 2 / 1 Merlin-1	-
Falcon-9-S5	2 x Stage 1 / 5 Merlin-1B	Stage 1 / 9 Merlin-1B	Stage 2 / 1 Merlin-1
Falcon-9-S9	2 x Stage 1 / 9 Merlin-1B	Stage 1 / 9 Merlin-1B	Stage 2 / 1 Merlin-1

Performance (kg)	LEO	GTO	GEO	MolO
Falcon-5	4100	1050	-	-
Falcon-9	9300	3400	-	-
Falcon-9-S5	16500	6400	-	-
Falcon-5-S9	24750	9650	-	-