SpaceX Completes Development of Rocket Engine for Falcon 1 and 9

SpaceX completed development of their Merlin 1C liquid cooled engine, an improved version of the Merlin 1A ablatively cooled engine that was used on SpaceX's first two launches of its Falcon 1 rocket. The new Merlin 1C will be used for SpaceX's upcoming third launch of the Falcon 1 (and hopefully their first full demonstration of achieving orbit) in early 2008.

Merlin is the first rocket engine to be developed in the United States since Rocketdyne's RS-68 engine over ten years ago for Boeing's Delta IV and only the second since the late 70's when Rocketdyne developed the Space Shuttle main engine.

Falcon 9 will also use the new Merlin, nine of them in its first stage alone. Falcon 9 is SpaceX's launch vehicle for their Dragon capsule, an Apollo like capsule designed to take NASA cargo (or paying customers) to orbit when it is completed. The release says:

It is among the highest performing gas generator cycle kerosene engines ever built, exceeding the Boeing Delta II main engine, the Lockheed Atlas II main engine, and on par with the Saturn V F-1 engine.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was very proud of the development time for the new engine and attributed a lot of it to having their own test facility in Texas.

“In August alone, we ran twenty-one major Merlin test firings, nearly one per working day, a rate we could not equal anywhere else. The success of Merlin is really due to the joint function of a great propulsion and test team.”

The new rocket was not only made quickly, it will also be made in abundance. SpaceX plans to produce 50 of then in 2008 alone, a larger production then any other country except Russia.

At a conference at MIT hosted by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, Musk said that they currently have 400 employees and expect to ramp up to 1,500 in the coming years. This news was well received by the students who seemed anxious for the chance to be part of the boom of New Space.

Besides, who wouldn't be impressed by 95,000 lbs of thrust?

SpaceX Completes Development of Merlin Regeneratively Cooled Rocket Engine [BusinessWire]
Elon Musk is Betting His Fortune on a Mission Beyond Earth's Orbit [Wired]