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.
There’s something that puzzles me.
Spacex’s website states that the first stage burns out at T+169s, followed by stage separation, but the “anomaly” occured at T+140s, so what is missing? Is there something that has to happen at 140s for stage separation to occur at 169s, or does the first stage burn out sometime before 169s, or what else could be going on because these numbers don’t seem to add up.