After only five seconds of testing its new engine at Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday, maverick rocket company SpaceX believes its privately built Falcon booster will be a success when it comes to launch day.
The El Segundo-based SpaceX needed to make sure its engine would perform, so the so-called "hot fire" was a critical step for the company, owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk.

"Today we completed the largest milestone remaining before launch," Mr.

Musk said in a statement. "In a few months, we will receive Air Force clearance to fly and Falcon I will make its maiden voyage. With the lowest cost per flight in the world for a production rocket and superlative design reliability, it has the potential to be a world leader in launches per year."

The 9 a.m. engine test Friday took just a few seconds, said Dianne Molina, company spokeswoman.

Although unnoticed by residents in nearby Lompoc, the quick engine rev-up at Space Launch Complex 3-West is the precursor to the late-summer launch of the privately financed, $6 million Falcon rocket. The 70-foot-tall Falcon I is the first in a series of boosters SpaceX is developing.

"It was a success, absolutely," Ms. Molina said.

Mr. Musk, founder of the electronic payment system PayPal, had predicted Friday morning that the test of the Merlin main engine would go off without a hitch right on time, she said.

"They're looking at all the reports now," Ms. Molina said in the late morning. "If it had been launching, it definitely would have launched successfully."

The team completed a dress rehearsal of a launch, including placing the Falcon upright on the launch stand and going through a countdown.

During the engine test, a number of safeguards were in place to make sure the rocket didn't lift off. Falcon was without batteries for the test, meaning it would lose all power if it suddenly took off. Wire tethers also kept the booster affixed to the launch stand.

It's been a month of frustration for the three-year-old company, with the initial test slated for the beginning of May. But various technical glitches -- and then a weeklong bump in the test schedule to make way for a NASA rocket launch -- put the company a bit behind schedule.

"It's been frustrating," Ms. Molina said. "But that's the nature of the business. (Waiting for) the Delta was frustrating. We were thrilled when it went off last week."

The upstart company is using a new rocket, a new engine system and a new launchpad to put the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's TacSat-1 satellite into orbit. With the engine test, officials at Space Exploration Technologies -- called SpaceX for short -- were able to have a dry run on all the other steps needed to get a rocket into space from the military base.

The maiden flight of the Falcon I will follow the launch of the last Titan IV rocket from Vandenberg. If that is continually delayed, SpaceX will likely move its inaugural Falcon launch to a pad in the Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific Ocean.

After the first Falcon, the company expects to launch two more rockets in the next year and was recently awarded a $100 million Air Force contract for launching satellites.

-----

To see more of the Santa Barbara News-Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newspress.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Santa Barbara News-Press, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.