OrbitalHub

Credits: SpaceX

The nine Merlin engines that power the first stage of the Falcon 9 launcher have been successfully tested. At the McGregor Test Facility in Texas, a full mission-length firing test of the first stage of the launcher was conducted on November 22, 2008. The engines, fired for 178 seconds, consumed over half a million pounds of propellant.

During the last eighteen seconds of the test, two of the engines were shut down in order to test the ability of the first stage to complete a mission in the event of an engine being lost during flight.

According to SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, the first liftoff of a Falcon 9 launcher from Cape Canaveral will occur in 2009.

Falcon 9 is a two-stage launch vehicle. It is powered by liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene. Nine Merlin engines power the first stage of the launcher. The second stage of the Falcon 9 launcher is powered by one Merlin engine.

Falcon 9 has a length of 54.9 m, a diameter of 3.6 m, and can have a mass of 333,400 kg for a low Earth orbit (LEO) mission, and 332,800 kg for a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) mission. It can inject 12,500 kg payloads into LEO (200 km) and 4,640 kg payloads into GTO (185×35,788 km). SpaceX will charge $36.75M for a LEO mission, and $46.75M for a trans-lunar injection (TLI) mission. For GTO missions, the price ranges from $36.75M to $57.75M.

For more details about the Falcon 9 launcher, you can visit the Falcon 9 overview web page on the SpaceX web site.

Check out the video with the 3 minute test of the Merlin engines on the SpaceX web site.