ORBCOMM, Inc. issued a press statement this afternoon on its efforts to determine if its OG2 satellite’s mission is recoverable after a Falcon 9 malfunction left it in a lower than planned orbit.

The Falcon 9 was launched amid much fanfare last night carrying a Dragon spacecraft full of cargo for the International Space Station (ISS).  That mission reportedly is doing fine, but a prototype ORBCOMM  satellite was left in the wrong orbit when one of the nine Merlin engines on the Falcon 9 rocket lost pressure and ruptured its fairing.  The other eight engines compensated for the lost thrust and placed Dragon into the correct orbit.

The ORBCOMM OG2 satellite wasn’t as lucky.  Orbcomm’s statement says “the rocket did not comply with a pre-planned International Space Station (ISS) safety gate to allow it to execute the second burn.  For this reason, the OG2 prototype satellite was deployed into an orbit lower than intended.”   The company went on to say it was working with the satellite’s manufacturer, Sierra Nevada, to determine “if and the extent to which the orbit can be raised to an operational orbit using the satellite’s on-board propulsion system.”

The OG2 satellite was a secondary payload on this mission.  The company said that it plans to launch its operational constellation of 18 of these satellites on Falcon 9 rockets in 2013 and 2014.  In those cases, the satellites will be the primary payloads and directly inserted into their operational orbits.

The OG2 series is ORBCOMM’s second generation Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications satellites for tracking, monitoring and controlling a wide range of mobile and fixed assets including trucks, shipping containers, locomotives, and pipelines.  The satellite launched yesterday also is carrying an Automated Identification System (AIS) device for tracking ships.

Update:  This story was updated after a brief media appearance by NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, and then the more formal post-launch press conference with Shotwell and NASA’s Sam Scimemi, Director, ISS, NASA Headquarters.

The weather cooperated tonight after all, and the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft was lofted to the International Space Station (ISS) on time at 8:35 pm ET.  SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell acknowledged there was a problem on the Falcon 9’s engine 1, however, but the Dragon spacecraft was put into the correct orbit nonetheless.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Shotwell appeared together briefly before the press and basically congratulated and thanked each other.  Bolden said the successful launch gave “non-believers one more opportunity to get aboard,” and called it a “big night.”

During a more formal post-launch press conference later, Shotwell acknowledged there was a problem with one of the nine Falcon engines — engine 1.  She pointed out that the vehicle is designed to operate after losing an engine and the spacecraft was delivered to the correct orbit nonetheless.   She said she had not had time to get the details yet.

Shotwell also confirmed that the Orbcomm demonstration satellite was successfully deployed, and perhaps more importantly at least to the ISS crew, ice cream was, indeed, included in Dragon’s cargo:  Bluebonnet vanilla with chocolate swirl.

Dragon is scheduled to be grappled by the ISS’s Canadarm2 at 7:22 am ET on Wednesday, with berthing at 9:40 am ET.   The events will be covered on NASA TV.

The chances of the weather cooperating tomorrow for the SpaceX launch of Dragon to the International Space Station have not improved, but today’s press conference raised hopes that, whenever it goes, there’ll be ice cream for the crew onboard.

At the usual L-1 press briefing one day before launch, technical talk about launch windows, problems on the ISS and the future of space tourism were overshadowed by a cheery thought — will this CRS-1 Dragon mission bring a “surprise” to the ISS crew?   The question was asked early in the press conference and ISS program manager Mike Sufferdini and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell briefly compared notes and Shotwell said something about ice cream.  Other reporters picked up on it as the press conference proceeded and by the end, Sufferdini was trying to dampen expectations, laughingly saying that he’d forgotten to check before he walked into the room so was not certain if the ice cream made it onto the final cargo list.   Dragon will be delivering a freezer needed for scientific experiments, so it might be possible.

Shotwell said that the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Dragon capsule does not need to be vertical on the launch pad until 1:00 pm ET tomorrow for the planned 8:35 pm launch, giving them plenty of time yet to load cargo.

Apart from potential ice cream, Dragon will take 1,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS.  Shotwell said the contract with NASA requires them to deliver a total of 20 metric tonnes (MT) of cargo, but it is looking more like it will be 60 MT by the time all 12 missions under contract have flown.  Sufferdini lauded the ease with which NASA can deal with an American company, avoiding customs regulations associated with the other vehicles that can take cargo to the ISS, which are Russian, European or Japanese.

Considerable press attention has been focused on SpaceX’s interest in building a launch site in Texas, but Shotwell emphasized that it is only one site the company is considering.  Others are in Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and her favorite, she said, would be Hawaii.

Shotwell also was asked about the company’s interest in space tourism, especially considering the press reports that Russia has sold a flight to Sarah Brightman.  Shotwell said she’s always happy when someone buys a ticket to fly into space, but that is not a focus for SpaceX and called the space tourism market “ill-defined.”

The reports that Brightman bought a ticket to fly to the ISS came at the same time an announcement was made that the ISS partners have agreed to keep two ISS crew members — one Russian, one American — on the ISS for a year-long mission in 2015.   The media reports suggest that Russia’s desire to resume selling tickets to non-NASA customers prompted the decision for the long duration mission, making a Soyuz seat available.

Sufferdini said there have been preliminary discussions about which two crew members would get the one-year assignment, but a final decision will not be announced until mid-late October.

Meanwhile, the chances that the Dragon launch will take place tomorrow remain at only 60 percent because of unfavorable weather conditions.  They improve to 80 percent for Monday or Tuesday.

SpaceX and NASA are readying for the first operational launch of the Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station on Sunday.  The only worry at the moment is the weather.

The current forecast is only 60 percent for favorable weather conditions at launch time Sunday night — 8:35 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  The mission has an “instantaneous” launch window, which means it either goes at 8:35 pm EDT or must wait another day. The weather is expected to improve on Monday and Tuesday, which are backup days for the launch.

The Dragon spacecraft will take about 1,000 pounds of supplies to the ISS crew and return about 734 pounds of scientific materials — such as the results from scientific experiments conducted onboard ISS — plus 504 pounds of ISS hardware.

SpaceX’s mission to the ISS in May was the final test to demonstrate that its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft could do the job.   Sunday’s flight is the first of 12 operational missions dubbed Commercial Resupply Missions (CRS); this is SpaceX CRS-1.  Orbital Sciences is building a competing ISS cargo system, which has not yet launched.   NASA also is buying CRS services from Orbital.

The Falcon 9 will launch from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.  If all goes well, it will berth to the ISS three days later.

NASA has a series of press conferences about the mission beginning tomorrow.  See our calendar on the right menu of our home page for details.