Falcon 1 Launch Fails To Make Orbit
August 4th, 2008
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Call this a bit late in reporting, as it was already mentioned in comments, but the SpaceX Falcon-1 launch, the third launch of the rocket has turned out the be a partial failure, which is effectively the same as a full failure when you’re dealing with trying to get stuff into orbit. On the bright side, the first stage appears to have operated more or less properly but when it came time for stage separation the second stage failed to detach and ignite, resulting in a loss of the entire vehicle and the small payload not making it to orbit.
This is definitely discouraging, but it’s not that big of a surprise that the first few launches would be difficult. The rocket is an entirely new design and the first launch system to be designed from the ground up by private enterprise. SpaceX has created the highest performance rocket engine of its type in the Merlin. The design of the whole spacecraft is very innovative and the fact that the problems have apparently all been ironed out of the first stage is an achievement in and of itself. The company has pretty good backing and already has contracts for launching satellites by the US government and others. So hopefully this won’t threaten their solvency.
On a stranger note, the rocket apparently carried a payload which included several samples of human ashes, which were destine for a “burial in space.” This included Star Trek actor James Doohan, known for playing the character of Scotty. Interestingly this was not the first time that the ashes of Doohan had been sent into space. In 2007 they were rocketed into a four minute sub-orbital flight by a sounding rocket along with 200 others. I don’t know whether these were the same ashes that were recovered or whether the sample was divided up and put on different rockets, but Doohan was a pretty big guy, so I guess maybe there are enough to go round? Anyway, it’s a bit disappointing because if you’re going to be burried in space I’d figure you’d want to actually stay up there for a bit and not just go up and back down for a few thrill rides. (It’s not even that much fun anyway, considering you’re dead)
As for me, if I were to be buried in space, I’d consider it to be less than legit to have my cremation ashes sent up. That’s not even much of the matter that I was composed of and a fair portion is likely just ash from the casket. For a real “space burial” I’d want to have my whole damn corpse shot into orbit. Lovely idea, isn’t it?
This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under Announcements, Good Science, Misc, Space. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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August 4th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Let’s hope they keep on trying. I would hate to see a project like this go down the tubes over a few failures. I’m not sure if this payload of ashes stunt is worth it at this point from a PR standpoint. I think it robs focus from the real objectives of a launch like this.
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August 4th, 2008 at 1:30 am
Putting a few grams of ashes into orbit costs more than one thousand dollars from most companies that will do it. If you figure they usually do it as a secondary payload with remaining space then putting a couple hundred little tubes of ashes will result in enough money to make a small dent in the cost of the flight. Considering this was a test flight and they would not want to put much important in it that they can’t afford to loose it might be just helpful to get a little extra cash for a few little packets of ash. I agree though it could mean loosing focus.
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August 4th, 2008 at 4:34 am
If my relatives are left with an inheritance or just have some money they would want to spend on my behalf after I die I’d want them to do something more useful than use it to send a tiny portion of my ashes into outer space. What a waste! How does it matter to anyone in any way? it’s a symbolic thing and a stupid one at that. Take the money and go donate it to some worthy cause in my name or even do something fun with it, but blasting my burned up bones into orbit is about the most useless thing I can imagine spending money on.
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August 4th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
That’s very true, but it’s hardly unique when you consider the enormous amount of money people spend on burial plots and headstones and monuments to mark them. What always gets me is the money spent on caskets and burial stuff. People are buried in very ornate and expensive boxes with plush velvet interiors and cherry and maple carved wood that is better than most furniture. It’s only for the funeral and then it goes into the ground to rot.
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August 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Lets not forget the Pyramids, the largest tombs on earth. Money well spent?
Also I can see the headlines now,
ISS CRITICALLY DAMAGED AFTER COLLISION WITH UNIDENTIFIED MALE CORPSE
Personally I’d prefer a burial at sea, it just seems more classy.
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August 4th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Gourry said:
I’m not sure they’d be able to tell it was male or even human actually. If the orbits were different enough it would hit with a combined velocity of more than 40 times the speed of sound. I’m thinking that it would result in a lot of twisted fragmented metal and some pulverized meat.
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August 4th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Gourry said:
I’d like to have my body donated. Donated to the Soylent Corporation, that is!
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August 4th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Blah. There’s enough space junk as-is.
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August 4th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
That is too bad. 4th time is the charm? I agree that they should keep going. This sounds like a pretty exciting rocket design.
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August 5th, 2008 at 5:43 am
The Soviet Onion said:
I understand that a peculiarly common coincidence in the early days of the US rocket program was that the first six tests of a new launch vehicle would typically fail in speactacular style. Aerospace engineers can be just as superstitious as anyone else under the right circumstances, and the tradition developed of numbering the first flight of each new vehicle as ‘7′.
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August 6th, 2008 at 10:52 am
A proper space funeral should involve firing the casket into the sun, “ashes into orbit” seems a waste to me.
Shame about Falcon 1, I have high hopes for the private space industry.
A suggestion for an article: Write something about asteroid capture using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion .
The planning stages for such a mission would be several years, so we might want to start the initial planning because the technology needed is pretty close.
Imagine an asteroid full of the raw materials needed for space construction in LEO.
Well, if you want to anyway, just a thought
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