Launch Success
Liftoff Time (GMT)
18:45:00
Friday June 4, 2010
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Maiden flight of the Falcon 9. An unexpected roll occurred at liftoff due to a flaw in the engine layout design, however it was shortly corrected and the flight continued without incident.
The Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit was a boilerplate version of the Dragon spacecraft manufactured by SpaceX. After using it for ground tests to rate Dragon's shape and mass in various tests, SpaceX launched it into low Earth orbit on the maiden flight of the Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX used the launch to evaluate the aerodynamic conditions on the spacecraft and performance of the carrier rocket in a real-world launch scenario, ahead of Dragon flights for NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program. The spacecraft orbited the Earth over 300 times before decaying from orbit and reentering the atmosphere on 29 June.
Low Earth Orbit
1 Payload
Agency
SpaceXPrice
$59.50 million
Rocket
Diameter: 3.7m
Height: 54.9m
Payload to Orbit
LEO: 10,450 kg
GTO: 4,540 kg
Liftoff Thrust
4,940 Kilonewtons
Fairing
Diameter: 5.2m
Height: 13m
Stages
2
1st
Mission
1st
Mission of 2010
6th
Mission
1st
Mission of 2010
27th
Orbital launch attempt