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SpaceX Falcon Flight Fails, Cause Unknown
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Falcon 1 Demonstration Launch 2007/SpaceX
It's not easy to get into space, as yesterday's failed flight of the unmanned SpaceX Falcon 1, preceded by a launch abort, proved. The Falcon is one of a series of commecial rockets SpaceX is developing to carry small payloads as well as someday carry supplies to the International Space Station.
As you can see in this video shot by the spacecraft itself, the second launch attempt and early milestones went smoothly. But somewhere, around second stage, something went wrong and the rocket and its payloads were lost.
Onboard: the cremated remains of astronaut Gordon "Gordo" Cooper, James Doohan, who played the Star Trek engineer Scotty, and more than 200 other cremains onboard the Celestis module. Also lost: three small satellites, one military and two NASA.
The military payload was a Trailblazer satellite, a project designed to demonstrate a quick-response-to-launch using off-the-shelf components. Onboard from NASA: NanoSail-D, a demonstration of solar sail propulsion, and PRESat, intended to study the growth of micro-organisms in space.
SpaceX is one of several commercial companies vying to get into space as a business. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk , the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation. The company has developed three different launch vehicles for payload flights.
So far, SpaceX has tried to fly a Falcon 1 three times. A fuel leak and engine fire right after liftoff destroyed the first vehicle in 2006. In 2007, the second flight got to space, but a malfunction in the second stage doomed the rocket.
The launch was staged at a Kwajalein Island complex. Like most aerospace companies, SpaceX is spread out across the country, with headquarters, design and manufacturing in California, test facilities in Texas, launch complexes at Vandenberg (CA) and Kwajalein. In 2007, the company gained the use of Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.
Although the cheering quickly turned to sober silence, Musk says the company is not dismayed.
" 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 " Musk declared.
The Merlin engine should be a good luck charm, just from its name. It was the fabled Merlin engine that propelled England's Royal Air Force (RAF) to victory in the Battle over Britain during World War II.
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