Comments on: Message from Elon Musk

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By: Nic

Nic — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:52:09 +0000

A big shame. I really thought they would make it to orbit this time.
It seems like a really odd failure too – the only stage separation failure I can think of before this was the Soyuz before the Apollo-Soyuz flight. Perhaps they happened a lot more in the really early days, I don’t know.
I wonder if it is related to the fix for the first stage hitting the second stage engine bell last time (that triggered the ‘hard over’ which contributed to the ‘coning’ and roll instability seen on the second flight).
Oh well, I know they’ll fix it and the Falcon 9 seems to be coming along nicely.

By: Bob Brashear

Bob Brashear — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 17:17:07 +0000

@Joey

Feel free to chuckle. Several of us busted guts afterward. Sort of “holy cow! did that really happen?!?”.

@Ryan

Nice site. Good luck with your work. We also did a 14 foot rocket (carbon fiber airframe) that went up on a AN/MG motor to about 12,000 feet in 2005. We had three test firings of the motor that were “interesting”. The fourth test fire worked and we launched in the fall. When it works, it feels Damn Good!

By: AndyD

AndyD — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:06:52 +0000

Sorry, wrong article. That’s twice this week. Feel free to delete.

By: AndyD

AndyD — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 16:05:12 +0000

I remember Randi from his appearance on Australia’s Don Lane show (1980). I’ve never forgotten the name or the incident and I’d have to say he had quite some influence on my early skepticism, such as it was, though I never saw Don Lane the same way afterwards.

Congratulations Phil.

By: Discovery News: Space Disco

Discovery News: Space Disco — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:42:32 +0000

Third Time’s Not a Charm…

…but it’s also not a time to give up. I’m still reeling from flying more than 30 hours to catch the total solar eclipse on Friday, but in case you haven’t heard, private company SpaceX’s third shot at a reusable

By: Santiago

Santiago — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:41:27 +0000

Can’t help but to conclude a few things from SpaceX’s effort:

- Developing a new rocket system is incredibly difficult and you have to expect multiple failures, even if the rocket is privately developed. This fact alone might, unfortunately, have a cooling effect on anyone attempting what SpaceX is doing, they’ve proved the chances of failure are enormous.

- Also, can’t help but think that new rocket systems would benefit enormously from being single-stage, possibly with strap-on boosters attached. Maybe developing the capability of the Merlin 1C stage to the point that it can reach LEO with a small pay load would make an important stepping stone before going for the complexity of a multi-stage vehicle.

Anyway, I do hope that SpaceX’s fourth launch is successful, they definitely deserve to get to orbit, and if they can get the necessary cash flowing, they probably will.