[amsat-bb] SpaceX statement on flight 3 anomaly
Lee McLamb
ku4os at cfl.rr.com
Sat Aug 2 22:36:26 PDT 2008
Plan Going Forward
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--
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