SpaceX's Elon Musk figures out Falcon 1 mishap, hopes for flight 4 next month

Wipe those tears away, budding astronaut. SpaceX's latest failure wasn't completely in vain. According to head honcho Elon Musk, the problem came just after a "picture perfect first stage flight" when a longer than expected thrust decay transient of the new Merlin 1C regeneratively cooled engine became "just enough to overcome the stage separation pusher impulse." You honestly may need to be a rocket scientist to digest all of that, but here's something even the layman can understand: Musk wants flight 4 in the air as early as next month. We're told that the long gap between flights 2 and 3 was simply due to all that engine engineering, but technologically speaking, nothing will change for the next attempt. Godspeed, Falcon 1 (v4).

[Thanks, Kenneth]

[tanjim @ Aug 7th 2008 11:15AM]

I for one can't wait till they get all the spaceflight jinks worked out and they make me a nice retirement ranch on Mars, nice view, maybe a abit of a red tinge to things, but still..

anyways, kudos to SpaceX for bringing me one step closer :)

[neofolklore @ Aug 8th 2008 7:58AM]

a "CHALLENGER" re-appears

[jeremycrowhurst @ Aug 7th 2008 11:17AM]

You gotta love Musk's enthusiasm. His commitment to making this work is admirable. Most others try and quit when their only prototype goes up in smoke. I think he has what it takes to make this happen.

God Speed...

[ShadowKain @ Aug 7th 2008 11:25AM]

They just won't give up will they? Will they have enough "power" this time around? (no pun intended).

[Josh Warner @ Aug 7th 2008 12:05PM]

The problem last time was too much power - 1.5 seconds too long of a burn from the detached first stage, causing it to impact the second stage above it. If you'd bothered to actually read the article, you would know this.

It's too bad they had a timing problem, but it is one that is eminently correctable.

[Thorny @ Aug 7th 2008 11:25AM]

God Speed Space X.

Spaceflight won't be affordable or routine until the cost-plus defense contractors are out of the equation.

[zackangelo @ Aug 7th 2008 11:30AM]

It's not that complicated. If you watch the video on the read link, you can see what he's talking about. Basically, the rocket had more fuel left in it than they realized and so it continued to generate thrust after the stage separation. The reason they didn't catch it is because they're now using a regeneratively cooled engine, which means they cycle fuel through the bell to keep it from overheating. The residual fuel was the fuel that was left over in the bell

Now, why that's bad, I don't know. It obviously knocked the second stage around a little bit, but Elon said that the 2nd stage engine ignited fine. Not sure why the 2nd stage didn't just push itself away from the first.

[cesium @ Aug 7th 2008 11:34AM]

The 1st stage has significantly more thrust than the 2nd stage so it stayed "attached"

[Jon Acheson @ Aug 7th 2008 2:04PM]

It's more that the thrust on the first stage didn't drop to zero as quickly as they thought it would, because the regenerative cooling system is basically a long fuel line wrapped around the exhaust nozzle, and takes longer to empty out.

The fix will be to wait a bit longer before separating the stages, so that the first stage isn't generating thrust any more. NO hardware changes necessary.

[Jake @ Aug 7th 2008 7:23PM]

The basic problem is two-fold:

1) They didn't do vacuum testing with their engine, so they did not know how much thrust the 1st stage would have after separation.

2) They did not leave enough coast time before stage separation. It may seem obvious, but when you have the first flight of a new engine, you need to build in extra safety factors to account for all the unknowables. That is a gross engineering error.

The fix may be easy, but it doesn't build confidence in their systems engineering. I hope they get it all worked out.

[drfaustus71 @ Aug 7th 2008 12:00PM]

Actually, what it means is that the 1st stage had increased in power, but what the forgot to do was increase the power of the little (probably solid fueled) motors that blast the second stage ahead of the first one, before the second stage ignites. If those little guys aren't powerful enough, the 1st stage stays too close to the second stage, and then when you light the second stage engine it overheats (from exhaust reflected of the first stage), and you cook stage one, probably causing it to explode, sending a powerful shockwave and shrapnel flying up at stage two and it's engine.

And the hits just keep on coming!

*phew*

[Xenoterranos @ Aug 7th 2008 12:08PM]

Next Month! I can't believe they told everyone how long it'll really take!
They've got a lot to learn if they want people to think of them as miracle workers!

[peternj @ Aug 7th 2008 12:08PM]

Well at least someone is seriously trying to get into orbit rather than Virgin's stupid 250k vomit ride.
I thought by now we would have colonies on the moon. Instead we have a space station with one toilet and little toys on mars.

[John DeVries-Amber @ Aug 7th 2008 1:19PM]

Life's little bumps.

[Milton Dorkenhoff @ Aug 7th 2008 4:28PM]

Given the way the first three launches went, it seems like (for the
US-centric population) the 4th of July would be a pretty appropriate date
for their next launch.

[eggmatters @ Aug 7th 2008 4:33PM]

I wholeheartedly agree with peternj. Curious if anybody knows what type of propulsion system they're using. I guess, I'll just be resourceful and look it up.