Falcon 1 launches well, fails at second stage seperation

It was a bittersweet day at SpaceX. The private rocket company has high hopes with building cheaper and more reliable vehicles than its government-sponsored competitors. But like all rocket science, it IS rocket science, and that means complicated challenges to resolve.

I was fortunate to be chosen to photograph the launch event at SpaceX’s rocket factory headquarters in Hawthorne, near Los Angeles LAX Airport. Tension was high in the flight control trailer as multiple delays in fueling and pressurization postponed the flight of Falcon 1 rocket.

After several delays due to loading Helium pressurization. (cold gases on a very hot day in Kwajaleen), SpaceX finally went to countdown. The clock went to zero and nothing happened. Some computer alert stopped the launch 1/2 sec to go.

After a fifteen minute hold, the clock was cycled back to ten minutes. The countdown resumed, and the launch was perfect. The event was friends and family only. Myself and a videographer were the only media-like folks allowed to document the launch. The family members were really excited when the rocket flew. But the employees knew the show was not over. For about five minutes, the stage one firing was perfect. We saw the rocket cam images of the Earth falling away. Then second stage separation… and the video cut out. A minute of uncomfortable silence, then the SpaceX webcast hosts came online and and said something happened to the second stage separation. Ten minutes later Elon Musk walked out of the Command Trailer and to the front of the audience area.

He explained the rocket was lost. Three of the four separation bolts fired. The Second stage engine ignited while the first stage was still attached. You can guess the rest. Elon re-iterated that the failure does not stop flights 4 5 or 6. SpaceX received extra funding to guarantee it. Work continues.

There is a recovery ship tracking the GPS signals of the rocket stages. It will try to rescue the rocket when it crashes to the ocean.

These separation bolts have been used successfully a hundred times, one engineer said. So an investigation begins.

There was a lot of anticipation and high hopes yesterday. Things are pretty quiet now, but everyone is going back to work.

Friends and family were allowed at the event. No media. The exception was myself and a few other chosen videographers to record the event. The actual Falcon 1 rocket was 2100 miles away, on a sliver of land on the Kwajaleen Atoll, one of a series of US owned islands in the South Pacific.

Alternating between the audience, the makeshift media booth hosted by two telegenic members of SpaceX’s marketing team, and the flight control trailer, I got to see this amazing place in detail. A Rocket Factory!!! How cool is that? Falcon 1 rockets and mockups were on display or in various stages of construction. The massive tank that is the Falcon 9 first stage was so large, yet in this voluminous building the sense of scale was deceiving.

The flight control trailer reminds me of another launch, and another trailer, fifteen years ago. This year is the anniversary of the Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X) flights. For those who do not know of the DC-X, it was military-funded project to build a fully reusable rocket ship. It flew. Twelve times. Over three years (1993-1996). The success of the DC-X program inspired so many people and projects that the list boggles (the X PRIZE, Pioneer Rocketplane, Kistler Aerospace, Kelly Space, Rotary Rocket, XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin, Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, and TGV Rockets and so on.) A combination reunion of the DC-X team and a space conference is happening in Alamogordo, New Mexico in two weeks. Check out the DC-X Project website for details. I’ll be there… showing off my photos from DC-X Flight 8 mission.