This
story was updated at 7:22 p.m. EST.
After years
of development and no less than three scrubbed attempts, a solitary
Falcon 1 rocket roared toward space Friday only to be lost just after liftoff,
its builders said.
The private
launch firm Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) launched the two-stage Falcon
1 rocket at 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) in a space shot staged from the U.S.
military's Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Test Site at the Kwajalein
Atoll in the Pacific Ocean's Marshall Islands.
But moments
after ignition, webcast video from the rocket appeared to show a rolling motion
before the feed was lost. Details surrounding possible causes for the rocket's
failure were not immediately available.
"We had a
successful liftoff and Falcon made it well clear of the launch pad, but
unfortunately the vehicle was lost later in the first stage burn," SpaceX
chief Elon
Musk said in an update posted to his El Segundo, California-based firm's
website. "More information will be posted once we have had time to analyze the
problem."
The ill-fated
launch marked SpaceX's fourth attempt to loft its inaugural Falcon 1 vehicle after
glitches prevented
three earlier efforts. SpaceX employees and launch controllers could be heard
via an audio link shouting "Go!" just after launch, only to fall silent once
the failure was evident.
"I did have
word that we did lose the vehicle," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business
development, told reporters. "Clearly this is a setback, but we're in this for
the long haul."
The rocket
was expected to deploy its cargo, the small, cube-shaped FalconSat-2
satellite built by U.S. Air Force Academy, about 10 minutes after launch. The
$800,000 satellite was designed to measure the effects of space plasma on
communication and global positioning satellites. The mission carried a $6.7
million price tag covered by the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
"We were of
course very disappointed," U.S. Air Force Academy spokesperson John van Winkle
told SPACE.com, adding that cadets packed the FalconSat-2 flight control
room to capacity to watch the attempted launch. "We were so excited to see it
finally lift off."
Earlier
attempts to launch Falcon 1 and its FalconSat-2 payload were thwarted by liquid
oxygen leaks, computer and structural
glitches, as well as unsatisfactory
pad tests, SpaceX officials said, adding that at one point 4,500 people
were watching today's launch webcast.
Musk, who
co-founded the Internet-based payment service PayPal, founded SpaceX in 2002.
Falcon 1
rundown
The 68-foot
(21-meter) Falcon 1 rocket is the first in a family of boosters planned by
SpaceX to offer a more affordable option to launch satellites, cargo and
possibly people into space. All Falcon 1 launches are cost
capped at $6.7 million, Musk has said.
Fueled by kerosene
and liquid oxygen, the booster features a homegrown Merlin engine and a
reusable first stage, SpaceX officials hoped would parachute back to the ocean for
later recovery for use on future flight.
SpaceX
built the Falcon 1 vehicle to carry payloads of up to 1,256 pounds (570 kilograms)
into low Earth orbit (LEO) - FalconSat-2 was aimed at an orbit that ranged between
279-310 miles (450-500 kilometers) - from launch pads at the Kwajalein Atoll
and California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Before
today's launch failure, Shotwell said SpaceX hoped to launch its second Falcon
1 rocket - to orbit the TacSat-1 built by the U.S.
Naval Research Laboratory - in about five months, with a Malaysian payload and
several secondary microsatellites to follow from the atoll in February 2007.
Those
missions will likely be delayed until SpaceX officials complete their
investigation and analysis of today's lost Falcon 1 booster.
Potential
SpaceX customers were looking forward today's launch, especially since the U.S.
Air Force has awarded SpaceX contract worth up to $100 million to launch satellites under its
DARPA/FALCON program.
"If he is successful, and we
certainly hope he is, we are going to be a big customer of his," said U.S. Air
Force Lt. Col. Daniel Griffith, the director of the Defense Department's Space
Test Program, before today's launch. "We are rooting him on like crazy."
Encouragement
for SpaceX was still strong amid spaceflight supporters after the Falcon 1
loss.
"Just last
month, Musk stated that the ultimate goal is to make life multi-planetary," said
National Space Society president George Whitesides in a statement. "Elon is
putting his money towards a grand vision - and if his bet pays off, all of
humanity will win. It is a most worthy goal, and we are sure that the
SpaceX team will learn from today and push forward."
Earlier
engine tests preferred
Prior to
today's launch attempt, Musk told SPACE.com that some of his Falcon 1
rocket's growing pains could have been avoided by conducting pre-launch engine
test.
"The single
biggest lesson is that we should have planned to do a static fire,
which is analogous to the engine run up done by aircraft, before the first
launch attempt," he said in an e-mail interview. "That would have
highlighted some of the issues we saw early on and might have allowed us to
launch sooner."
SpaceX
engineers conducted several
engine static fire checks leading up today's launch attempt and all seemed
go for launch.
Each of the
scrubbed launch attempts could provide a wealth of data that allowed SpaceX
launch controllers and engineers to hone their skills, Musk said earlier,
adding that even if Falcon 1 didn't perform as planned, knowledge would be
gained.
"I really
believe that constant improvement is the path to revolutionizing space
exploration," Musk said before today's launch.
While
Falcon 1 is designed to launch smaller payloads into LEO, plans for the firm's larger
Falcon 9 booster
are slated to allow payloads of up to 21,000 pounds (9,500 kilograms) in a
medium configuration and 55,000 pounds (25,000 kilograms) cargo to LEO in its
heavy configuration.
It is the
Falcon 9 that SpaceX hopes to use for its Dragon space
capsule, a reusable craft it is developing to compete for NASA flights to
supply and crew the International Space Station (ISS). Musk has said that human
spaceflight has always been his target for SpaceX.
"We need a
Moore's Law of space, similar to that of the semiconductor arena, where
the cost per pound cost of access to space is constantly improving," Musk told SPACE.com
earlier. "Only if that happens, will we become a true spacefaring civilization
where ordinary people have the opportunity to travel in space," Musk said.
Space
News writer Brian Berger contributed to this report from Washington D.C.
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