An update on Falcon 1 from SpaceX’s Elon Musk:
A week spent reviewing data has confirmed that the flight went really well, including the coast and restart. The mood here at SpaceX is just ecstatic! This is the culmination of six years of hard work by a very talented team. It is also a great relief for me, who led the overall design of the rocket (not a role I expected to have when starting the company). I felt a little sheepish receiving the AIAA award for the most outstanding contribution to the field of space transportation two weeks before this flight.
Continue reading ‘Musk: Mood at SpaceX “Just Ecstatic”’
Falcon 1’s first stage falls away during Sunday’s launch. Credit: SpaceX.
SpaceX ‘Falcon 1′ Marks New Era For Space Industry
Information Week
“A privately developed liquid fuel rocket has entered Earth orbit, becoming the first such rocket to do so and heralding the dawn of the private sector space industry.”
SpaceX success is huge milestone
Huntsville Times
Homer Hickam and Tim Pickens weight in….
Continue reading ‘SpaceX Success: What it All Means….’
Congratulations are due to Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX. On Sunday, they successfully launched the Falcon 1 rocket from the Marshall Islands. The rocket took off at 16:16 PDT; the second stage reached an orbital velocity of 52,00 meters per second at 8 minutes and 21 seconds after launch.
The rocket carried a “payload mass simulator of approximately 165 kg (364 lbs), designed and built by SpaceX specifically for this mission. Consisting of a hexagonal aluminum alloy chamber 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, the payload attaches to the standard Falcon 1 payload mounting structure. It does not separate, but remains attached to the second stage as it orbits the Earth,” according to SpaceX.
Elon Musk posted the following update on his blog:
Falcon 1 is currently cleared for liftoff sometime between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. (California time) tomorrow, Sunday September 28th. Of course, if we see anything that requires investigation, the launch will be postponed, but we’ll let you know as soon as we know. As with prior flights, you can access the webcast from the SpaceX site: www.spacex.com
Elon Musk (Credit: SpaceX)
NASA at 50: Privatizing Space
Washington Post
The results of a webchat Q&A with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who discusses the progress of his Falcon rockets and his dreams for Mars.
Aiming for Stars, Entrepreneurs May Also Fill Gaps
Washington Post
As NASA turns 50 this week, the space agency faces increasing competition from entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Richard Branson who are pushing for space tourism in low Earth orbit and trips to the moon and Mars.
Artist impression of a Falcon 9 lifting off from Cape Canaveral. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX released this message from CEO Elon Musk earlier today:
“The static fire took place on Saturday [20 Sep 2008, CA time], as expected, and no major issues came up. However, after a detailed analysis of data, we decided to replace a component in the 2nd stage engine LOX supply line. There is a good chance we would be ok flying as is, but we are being extremely cautious.
“This adds a few extra days to the schedule, so the updated launch window estimate is now Sept 28th through Oct 1st [CA time].”
Dude….No major issues? Except for that part in the fuel line? That you replaced?
Ah….that Silicon Valley double speak. I know it well. Maybe too well.
Continue reading ‘SpaceX Finds “No Major Issues”, Delays Falcon Launch 5 Days’
Undaunted by three straight failures, SpaceX could launch its fourth Falcon 1 vehicle as early as Tuesday. Company founder Elon Musk’s latest blog update on Friday indicates that the company is close to a launch from its facility in the Marshall Islands.
“Having said that, it is still possible that we encounter an issue that needs to be investigated, which would delay launch until the next available window in late October. If preparations go smoothly, we will conduct a static fire on Saturday and launch sometime between Tuesday and Thursday (California time).”
Continue reading ‘Falcon 1 Could Launch as Early as Tuesday’
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’
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’
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.
