Falcon
During April 2008, construction started on the ground facilities necessary to support the launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Renovations include installation of new liquid oxygen and kerosene tanks and construction of a hangar for rocket and payload preparation.
The first Falcon 9 rocket arrived at SLC-40 in late 2008, and was erected for the first time on January 10, 2009. It successfully reached orbit on its maiden launch on June 4, 2010, carrying the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit.
SLC-40 is the launch facility of the SpaceX Dragon, a reusable automated cargo vehicle which will be used to provide two-way logistics to and from the International Space Station; a role previously filled by the Space Shuttle until its retirement in 2011. SpaceX successfully launched the first test flight for the Dragon from SLC-40 on December 8, 2010. Its first attempt to dock with the International Space Station was successfully launched on May 22, 2012, following an abort after engine ignition three days earlier.
Read more about this topic: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40
Famous quotes containing the word falcon:
“My falcon now is sharp and passing empty,
And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged,
For then she never looks upon her lure.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The quality of decision is like the well-timed swoop of a falcon which enables it to strike and destroy its victim.”
—Sun Tzu (6–5th century B.C.)
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)