Welcome back to our historical milestone series. Today, we talk about Falcon 9, as this is the 13th anniversary of this rocket’s maiden flight. Yes, on June 4th, 2010, the most used rocket of the last decade first took off. So, let us discuss this momentous occasion.
The Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit
So, Falcon 9 had its debut on this day, 13 years ago. But what was the objective of this mission? In other words, what was Falcon 9 trying to accomplish? To answer this, we first need to talk about the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit. This machine was the boilerplate version of the SpaceX’s Dragon Spacecraft. That means it was a nonfunctional spacecraft, which had the objective of simulating and testing out various parameters and configurations.
Of course, the Dragon C100 — just another name for this machine — was first tested on the ground. However, on June 4th, 2010, the time finally came to send this craft into space. And the rocket chosen to carry out this task was none other than SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
As is often the case with the first time a spacecraft has to be deployed, this launch was subject to many delays. Originally, the target date for it was in November 2009. However, even though the launch was postponed 10 times, once Falcon 9 took off, it was able to accomplish its mission.
June 4th, 2010
As for the launch itself, not unlike many of the ones we have discussed in our other historical milestones so far, there were some technical difficulties. The first attempt at lift-off occurred at 17:30 UTC. That is 13:30 EST. The reason I mention that is because the launch took place at the one and only Cape Canaveral. But quick digression aside, this attempt was aborted only seconds prior to the rocket launching. This happened because of an out-of-range engine parameter. However, as it turns out, that was an error on the sensor’s end. Therefore, the launch was rescheduled for an hour and 15 minutes later.
And this time, there would be no sensor errors. At 18:45 UTC (or 14:45 EST), a Falcon 9 rocket took off for the very first time. It then proceeded to place the Dragon C100 in LEO (Lower Earth Orbit), where the spacecraft would stay for 22 days. With its mission completed, the Dragon C100 reentered Earth on June 27th at approximately 00:50 UTC. Over its stay in space, the spacecraft completed 359 orbits around our planet.
Interestingly enough, the on-board batteries were only designed to last for the duration of the launch. This led to SpaceX losing communication with the rocket and spacecraft right after they reached LEO. And because of this, it is not known where exactly the Dragon C100 reentered Earth. Although estimates suggest somewhere that the spacecraft disintegrated somewhere over Syria and Iraq.
A UFO?
One more quite literally “fun fact” about this mission has to do with a possible UFO sighting. Yep, on June 5th, various Australian provinces reported seeing “a lollipop-type swirl” of light up in the sky. And while it was not aliens, what people observed was either the qualification unit, the spent upper stage, or both of our Falcon 9 maiden flight mission.
