Sitting pretty: FalconSAT before launch.Credit Timothy Lawrence

When the privately funded experimental Falcon 1 rocket exploded shortly after lift-off, its designers vowed to rebuild it and fly it again (see 'Private rocket crashes and burns'). But it looks like it's curtains for the rocket's payload, an ill-fated little satellite called FalconSAT-2.

The 19.5-kg payload only flew for 29 seconds before the rocket burst into flames on 24 March. Debris scattered across the South Pacific atoll of Kwajalein from which it launched.

The tiny satellite made an unceremonious return to Earth, apparently crashing through the roof of a nearby machine shop that was being used to support the launch. Despite remaining mostly in one piece, its builders say it is damaged beyond repair.

Labour of love

FalconSAT-2 was a labour of love for students of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Since 2000, successive classes of cadets have devoted their senior year to designing and developing the satellite as part of their training. It carried a single scientific instrument designed to measure bubbles of ionized gas or 'plasma' that sometimes form in the upper atmosphere and can disrupt communications.

The class's previous project, FalconSAT-1, launched in 2000 and operated for a few weeks before problems with its solar pannels shut it down. FalconSAT-2 hasn't been even this lucky. "From what I've been able to see, there's really nothing that we can recover from it," says Timothy Lawrence, a professor at the Air Force Academy, who has examined photos of the wreckage.

Students stand proud by their satellite.Credit Timothy Lawrence

The unfortunate conclusion marks the end of a long and difficult journey for FalconSAT-2. It was originally meant to be launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2003, but those plans were indefinitely delayed after the crash of the shuttle Columbia in February of that year. Three prior launch attempts on the experimental Falcon 1 rocket were no-goes, and the satellite's US$1.8 million budget had been stretched to near breaking Lawrence says.

Take-home lesson

Still he sees the loss as a learning experience for his students, who will probably face lengthy delays and launch failures in the real world of satellite building. And not everyone was disappointed: "At least the FaclonSAT-2 mechanical engineering cadets are happy," he says. "Their structure survived 'terminal velocity'."

FalconSAT-3 is now being developed by the next generation of students. Its first flight test is scheduled for next month.

Meanwhile Lawrence says the Academy has set aside a final resting place for FalconSAT-2: "Once the investigation is complete, we'll put it in our visitor centre," he says.

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