SpaceX says that it has discovered the cause of the failure that doomed its Falcon 1 rocket on Saturday. The new Merlin first-stage engine that founder Elon Musk praised as the major achievement of the failed flight may have performed a little too well.
The new engine added a more thrust to the first stage than the one used on the previous flight. This caused the first stage to ram into the second stage after the two segments separated at 2 minutes and 20 seconds into the flight, Space.com reports.
“We have quite a definitive understanding of what went wrong on the last flight,” Musk told reporters in a teleconference, adding that the timing error was on the order of seconds. “If we were to increase that gap by even a second or two, this problem would not have arisen.”
Yep, that’s all it takes. A mere second to destroy a multimillion-dollar rocket and consign its payloads to a watery grave. Musk and his team are now learning the difficult lessons that every other rocket pioneer has learned before them.
Continue reading ‘Upgrade an Engine, Wreck a Rocket’
X PRIZE PRESS RELEASE
The X PRIZE Foundation today announced that ten teams will compete in the 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge, which will take place at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico, October 24-25, 2008. The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge is a two-level, two million dollar competition requiring a vehicle to simulate trips between the moon’s surface and lunar orbit.
Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, said, “Once again, we have excellent teams prepared to compete in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. We are excited to see new teams join the competition, and I am confident that we will give away prize money this year. We are also delighted to have Northrop Grumman back as our title sponsor. This is the third year Northrop Grumman has supported the Lunar Lander Challenge; they are a valued partner and we would like to thank them for their continued enthusiasm.”
“Northrop Grumman is delighted to once again sponsor the Lunar Lander Challenge, an undertaking that typifies the spirit of U.S. leadership in innovation, entrepreneurism, and human space exploration,” said Robert Davis, director of the company’s space systems business development. “The competition continues to produce discoveries and dialogues that add critical bits of momentum to the Nation’s space program. We applaud and appreciate the contributions of every entrant to this process.”
Continue reading ‘Ten Teams to Compete in 2008 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge’
Saturday’s failure of SpaceX’s Falcon 1 launch vehicle did more than destroy three small satellites. It also sent the ashes of Mercury astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr., Star Trek actor James “Scotty” Doohan and 206 other people into the Pacific Ocean instead of orbit.
The remains were placed aboard the rocket through a Texas-based company called Celestis. A spokeswoman, Susan Schonfeld, told The New York Times that the company would re-fly the remains of all 208 people using backup samples.
This launch marked the second effort to send Doohan’s and Cooper’s ashes into space; last year, they were launched aboard an UP Aerospace suborbital rocket in New Mexico. The payload containing the ashes was lost for about three weeks in the rugged mountains before being recovered in good shape.
One of Doohan’s seven children, Ehrich Blackhound, said he has had enough. He wrote an eloquent piece on Boing Boing saying that each launch opens an unhealed wound.
Continue reading ‘Falcon 1 Crash Sent Gordo’s and Scotty’s Ashes into the Pacific’
NASA MISSION UPDATE
5 August 2008
Phoenix Mars mission scientists spoke today on research in progress concerning an ongoing investigation of perchlorate salts detected in soil analyzed by the wet chemistry laboratory aboard NASA’s Phoenix Lander.
“Finding perchlorates is neither good nor bad for life, but it does make us reassess how we think about life on Mars,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA), the instrument that includes the wet chemistry laboratory.
If confirmed, the result is exciting, Hecht said, “because different types of perchlorate salts have interesting properties that may bear on the way things work on Mars if — and that’s a big ‘if ‘ — the results from our two teaspoons of soil are representative of all of Mars, or at least a significant portion of the planet.”
Continue reading ‘Phoenix Lander Finds Perchlorates in Soil’
The always candid and occasionally bewildering Mike Griffin made an appearance in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin last week at the AirVenture 2008 air show. Despite being overshadowed by Richard Branson’s Super Terrific Happy Hour (a.k.a., WhiteKnightTwo), the NASA administrator still managed to create controversy while giving our nation’s school children a South Park-style lesson in blame shifting.
The comments involved a possible five-year gap between shuttle and Orion flights. Aero-News.net has this account:
“A common thread throughout the hour-plus discussion was the logic, or lack thereof, of discontinuing the Space Shuttle until a replacement vehicle was in operation. According to NASA’s website, the current plan includes phasing out the Space Shuttle in 2010 and using Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft to shuttle astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) until a US replacement is developed. ‘The US and its partners have invested $100 billion in the [ISS],’ said Griffin, ’so it does seem short-sighted to not spend the $3 billion a year to maintain the Shuttle.’
And who does the NASA leader blame for this problem? It ain’t Canada.
“Directing his comments to the children in the audience, “Sometimes Washington does silly things.’”
This comment speaks for itself, really.
Below is a copy of the statement that Scaled Composites posted on its website Friday concerning the explosion last summer that claimed the lives of three employees and seriously injured three others.
The statement outlines steps the company has taken to make sure that a similar explosion doesn’t occur in the future. The Mojave-based company also says that it was “completely surprised” by the explosion, which resulted from a fuel leak during a routine engine test. This claim likely forms the basis of the company’s appeal of fines levied against it for safety violations by Cal OHSA.
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August 1, 2008
The rocket oxidizer cold-flow test accident of 26 July 2007 at Scaled Composites was a devastating event. It caused the death of three co-workers and serious injuries to three more. It produced untold grief and turmoil for immediate families and friends of those killed and injured, as well as to the Scaled family. All of our lives were changed that day.
It should go without saying that we were completely surprised by this accident, as we had conducted numerous tests, without incident, on similar systems including the SpaceShipOne rocket motor. The body of knowledge about nitrous oxide (N2O) used as a rocket motor oxidizer did not indicate to us even the possibility of such an event. However, because this serious and unanticipated accident had occurred, we had to look back at what had happened and where we go from there.
Continue reading ‘Scaled Composites Releases Update on Accident Investigation’
Below is the text of Elon Musk’s statement concerning the failed Falcon 1 launch. The SpaceX founder did not speak the media after the accident; the statement was read during a brief teleconference with reporters by Diane Murphy, SpaceX’s vice president for marketing and communications.
“It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight [Falcon 1, Flight 3]. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened.
“The most important message I’d like to send right now is that SpaceX will not skip a beat in execution going forward. We have flight four of Falcon 1 almost ready for flight and flight five right behind that. I have also given the go ahead to begin fabrication of flight six. Falcon 9 development will also continue unabated, taking into account the lessons learned with Falcon 1. We have made great progress this past week with the successful nine engine firing.
“As a precautionary measure to guard against the possibility of flight 3 not reaching orbit, SpaceX recently accepted a significant investment. Combined with our existing cash reserves, that ensures we will have more than sufficient funding on hand to continue launching Falcon 1 and develop Falcon 9 and Dragon. There should be absolutely zero question that SpaceX will prevail in reaching orbit and demonstrating reliable space transport. For my part, I will never give up and I mean never.
“Thanks for your hard work and now on to flight four.”
–Elon–
Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that Musk had sent the statement as an email to employees. Apparently, he did make the statement directly to employees.
UPDATE: Space.com has an email that Elon Musk sent to employees. It reads in part:
“It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened.”
Earlier Updates:
SpaceX has suspended its webcast of the Falcon 1 launch and posted the following message on its website:
Posted August 2, 2008 - 20:38 PDT
“We have heard from launch control that there has been an anomaly. More details will be posted to the website as available.”
The last report on the vehicle came 2 minutes and 20 seconds after liftoff at 8:33 p.m. PDT:
“Vehicle switching to inertial guidance mode. 1050 m/s, altitude of 35 km.”
There is also this report from Space.com:
“A video camera mounted on the rocket appeared to show some oscillations during the ascent. Whether that was normal or a sign of trouble is not yet clear.
“About two minutes, 20 seconds into the ascent, the video broadcast provided by SpaceX was abruptly terminated. A company spokesperson then said there had been ‘an anomaly’ with the launch vehicle.”
SpaceX will try to launch its Falcon 1 rocket from the Kwajalein Atoll at approximately 5:55 pm. PDT (00:55 UTC). They’re webcasting the launch.
This is the third launch attempt for Elon Musk’s rocket. The first launch vehicle exploded shortly after takeoff. The second failed to attain orbit. This third rocket is carrying the following payloads:
- The Trailblazer satellite developed by SpaceDev of Poway, Calif., for the Jumpstart Program of DoD’s Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office, as a test platform to validate the hardware, software and processes of an accelerated microsatellite launch.
- Two NASA small satellites: PRESat, a micro laboratory from NASA’s Ames Research Center; and NanoSail-D, which will unfurl an ultra-thin solar sail, developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in collaboration with NASA Ames Research Center.
Space tourism is nigh, but a new space age is not
Crosscut.com
In a thought-provoking essay, Robert Fortner takes a look at the limitations of SpaceShipTwo as well as the divergent paths of Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Allen is a major force behind space tourism, while Gates is focused on more down-to-Earth concerns.
“The space evangelists seek to transcend the present and this earth in an almost religious fashion. According to their creed, humankind will overcome its imperfections in the heavens, rising above mere terrestrial concerns in themselves paltry and base. Philosophically, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stands in diametric opposition to rocket building. The Gateses seek to make heaven on Earth, directing science, technology, and the market toward more immediate service to humanity, particularly the most wretched of the earth.”