SpaceX loses yet another launch vehicle.
For those of you not familiar with SpaceX, it is at the forefront of the NewSpace movement, whose advocates believe it is imperative to harness the power of private enterprise to make mankind a spacefaring species. Its colorful and brilliant founder, Elon Musk, is one of those Internet Billionaires that populate the new technology landscape these days. SpaceX has developed a new commercial launch vehicle, the Falcon I.
Unfortunately, the first two “demo” flights failed to reach orbit. This third flight was intended as a “production” flight and carried actual “paying” payloads.
I have mixed emotions about this failure. On the one hand, I agree with the motivation of the NewSpace advocates. I would like to see us become a spacefaring species. I reckon it’s the only way my great-great-grandson will get to fly one of these.
But I have spent the last twelve months helping design NASA’s new launch vehicle, the Ares I. This rocket science stuff isn’t as easy as it sounds. Staging is risky. Propellant slosh can bring you down to earth. In a sense, it’s good to know that the problems I’m working on are not simple.