After an agreement with NASA this past week, Space X got true approval for its Falcon 9 rocket may fly medium-level NASA missions. Medium-level or Category 2 certification means medium risk launches such as satellite and smaller scale probes.
NASA’s Launch Services Program is in charge for research missions, including certification processes. It was a three-year process for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket to receive certification. Now that Falcon 9 is a Category 2 spacecraft,
What Category 2 excludes will be higher cost robotic missions. No matter, as Category 3 is just a goal for SpaceX to reach for. To obtain Category 3 certification, NASA calls for a launch vehicle. Falcon 9 sets this goal in order to obtain more contracts for scientific mission from NASA’s authority. Even though SpaceX has plans for only one more mission in the near future, (a Florida-based planetary search satellite launch, Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite–TESS–in August 2017), another certification would open just open more doors toward scientific discovery.
Falcon 9 Rocket’s First Mission As Certified Category 2 Vehicle
Jason 3: SpaceX is planning the launch of a U.S.-French oceanography satellite–Jason 3–in July from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Its scientific mission is to measure conditions in the ocean. In this $358 million mission, the Falcon 9 rocket would orbit 830 miles over Earth and bounce signals off Earth’s oceans in order to measure wave mass, sea level rising, and other determinable factors in measuring weather, oceanography, and the future of climate change.
The Falcon 9 is schedule for shipment in preparation for this mission in the month of June. It’ll be Space X’s second Falcon 9 launch, the first in September 2013. With the certifications, Falcon 9 is sure to secure more contracts. Its track record has been successful, having launched six resupply missions for the International Space Stations (ISS) under NASA’s contract. Since it was under NASA and the ISS, SpaceX did not need certification at that point for its Falcon 9 rocket.
