SpaceX's New Rocket - Most Powerful Private Rocket Ever Built

As NASA is wrapping up its space shuttle program, private space corporations are beginning to take a stronghold in space exploration. Recently, SpaceX or Space Explorations Technologies Inc. announced a new rocket called the Falcon Heavy that is only second in size to the Apollo Era's Saturn V.

The Falcon Heavy is planned to have a payload of 117 000 pounds, twice that of the Space Shuttle and rival company United Launch Alliance LLC's Delta IV. The new rocket is also much cheaper per launch, costing $ 80 - 120 million. This is a lot less than the cost of Delta IV ($ 140 - 160 million).

The first demonstration flight of SpaceX's new rocket will be sometime between November and December of 2012 at California's Vandenburg Air Force Base.

The company already has successes with its operational rockets. NASA has given SpaceX a $ 1.6 billion contract to send supplies to the International Space Station through SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on the Falcon 9, the predecessor of the Falcon Heavy.

AIM-120 AMRAAM

The AIM-120 AMRAAM, manufactured by Hughes/Raytheon, is commonly known as the Slammer in the United States Air Force. It is an all-weather day-and-night capable Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile. When an AMRAAM is launched, NATO pilots use the brevity code "FOXTHREE". Introduced operationally in 1991, the AMRAAM was the replacement for the AIM-7 Sparrow and made its first appearance on September as an operational missile on board United States Air Force F-15 Eagle Squadrons. It was designed so that a fighter can take on multiple targets at once, no matter the manoeuverability or speed of the target. is commonly mistaken as a pure fire-and-forget missile, like the AIM-9 Sidewinder, but that depends on the range of the target. Only when the missile reaches a range where its small active homing radar is able to find the target, then it can be "forgotten".

Guidance System...

First of all, the AMRAAM has a built-in Inertial Navigation System (INS). It uses this to fly an interception course to the target with information usually from the launching aircraft. It can also be obtained from a data link from another fighter aircraft, or a Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.

When the firing aircraft, AWACS, or another fighter aircraft continues to track the target, periodic updates are sent to the missile that consists of any changes in the target's heading and speed. This way, the AMRAAM would be able to keep the target in its radar seeker's field of view, or basket. However, not all operators have purchased this mid-course update option which might have negative effects on the AMRAAM's effectiveness in some scenarios. In fact, the RAF, which was testing the AMRAAM without the mid-course update for its Tornado F3 force, discovered that its is even less effective than the older semi-active radar homing BAE Skyflash missile.

The only time when the AMRAAM is truly a fire-and-forget weapon is when its fired at close range, which is assumed to be visual range, to the target. At that distance, the AMRAAM's own active radar seeker is automatically turned on and it will start guiding itself to the target. When the active radar seeker is turned on, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) brevity code "PITBULL" would be called on the radio, just like when "FOXTHREE" is used to announce the launch of an AIM-120.

AIM-9 Sidewinder

An AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder is a heatseeking, supersonic, short range, US$85 000, air-to-air missile carried by fighter aircraft, and recently, some gunship helicopters. It's first flight was on September 1953, and it entered service in 1956. The manufacturers of this missile are Raytheon Company, Ford Aerospace, and Loral Corp.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder was named after the Sidewinder snake, which detects the prey via body heat or infrared radiation. The other reason is the peculiar snake-like flight pattern the early versions liked to follow when launched. The AIM-9 widely immitated and copied by many countries as it was the first truly effective air-air missiles. Some airforces still have variants, and upgrades of the Sidewinder still in active service for 5 decades. The latest version of it is the AIM-9X.

In the first few years when the Sidewinder was introduced, new aircrafts developed abandoned guns and added new racks on the wings for Sidewinders. The Air Force thought with this new weapon, dogfighting was obsolete. This assumption was a terrible mistake. During the Vietnam war, U.S. aircraft loses mounted and kills were lessened. Most Sidewinders fired failed to lock on or missed. They soon realised their mistake and dogfighting was introduced again. Modern planes still have guns, but most are intended as a last ditch effort.