At 11:36 pm EDT August 2, 2008 the Falcon 1 lost contact with the base in Hawthorn, California. After aborting the first launch at .5 seconds, the counter was reset to 11 minutes and launch countdown was reinitiated. At T-minus one minute, cheers could be heard from the staff as the Falcon 1 finally blasted off.

Unfortunately after T+140s when the vehicle switched to inertial guidance mode at an altitude of 35 km, all contact was lost. Staff at SpaceX stated that an anomaly occurred and immediately cut feed to the webcast.

SpaceX, in the running to help assist NASA if or when funding runs out, designed the Falcon 1 with the minimal number of engines. As a result, there is only one engine per stage and an automatic safe shut-down and unloading of propellant occurs if any "off nominal conditions are detected."

The Falcon 1 was carrying the Trailblazer, two CubeSats (one of which was NASA's NanoSail-D) for the Air Force and MDA and unfortunately, also carried the remains of astronaut Gordon Cooper and the actor James Doohan from Star Trek.

In the case that this rocket is non-recoverable there are two additional Rocket 1s available for launch.

Update at 12:42 am EDT - Kimbal Musk, the brother of the CEO of SpaceX has written that that rocket has been lost. After contacting Mr. Musk he was unable to officially confirm this information but states that his brother, Elon Musk, will be releasing a press release shortly.

Update at 1:01 am EDT - SpaceX is reporting that the booster on the rocket did not separate correctly. Diane Murphy, the SpaceX vice president of marketing and communications released the following statement tonight:

"It was obviously a big disappoint not to reach orbit on this Flight 003 of the Falcon 1. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage with the new Merlin 1C regenerative engine that will be used in Falcon 9 was picture-perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred at stage separation causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation." The following is the rest of the statement released to SpaceX employees by founder and CEO, Elon Musk:

"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--"

This is the third failed launch for SpaceX in their quest to become the new leader in the private space industry.

Link: SpaceX Homepage
View: Last frame before contact was cut (thanks blackice912)
Video: View the Flight


There are 21 additional comments
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(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by foonacha on 03 Aug 2008 - 05:06
"Ye canna change the laws of physics!"....
Quote this comment #1.1 Posted by FlishFun on 03 Aug 2008 - 05:14
A fitting quote as the Falcon 1 was carrying the remains of the actor James Doohan (Scotty) from Star Trek.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by Deathray on 03 Aug 2008 - 05:49
Whenever i see "anomaly" and "space" i put my tinfoil hat on
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by naap51stang on 03 Aug 2008 - 06:07
Hey, it took NASA (with unlimited resources) a few years to put a satellite in orbit. Given time, I'm sure Space X will get the bugs worked out.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by mocax on 03 Aug 2008 - 06:38
So Scotty's ashes are now in someone's drinking water?
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by HoochieMamma on 03 Aug 2008 - 07:36
Owned
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by XerXis on 03 Aug 2008 - 09:39
who in their right mind gives a rocket program that has never yet reached orbit a cargo
Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by yakumo on 03 Aug 2008 - 11:10
^This,
Seems a slightly surprising waste of money even for the military.
Doohan and Coopers ashes
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by digitalsoft on 03 Aug 2008 - 10:34
bit of a shame... SpaceX - intuitive name lol
Quote this comment #7.1 Posted by Xeta on 05 Aug 2008 - 22:47
Their name makes me think of Racer X from Speed Racer.

A shame that Scotty didn't make it into space, though.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by Quick Reply on 03 Aug 2008 - 12:57
When I saw this make FPN with updates, etc. I thaught that it was manned space flight and someone had been lost into space. The fact that it was unmanned needs to put into articles like this so laymen like me don't become concerned that someone got lost
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by LTD on 03 Aug 2008 - 13:13
Low-budget rocket programs . . . brilliant idea.

Why not actually FUND these programs PROPERLY.

Oh, right . . . . useless wars against helpless countries. That's where it's all going. Almost forgot.
Quote this comment #9.1 Posted by z0phi3l on 03 Aug 2008 - 14:49
(LTD said @ #9)
Low-budget rocket programs . . . brilliant idea.

Why not actually FUND these programs PROPERLY.

Oh, right . . . . useless wars against helpless countries. That's where it's all going. Almost forgot.



And yet they have gotten farther in less time than NASA, so maybe, just maybe, private space companies are the way to go since NASA is slower than, well slow
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by Tzimisce on 03 Aug 2008 - 16:00
Private companies are the way to go, its the only way we will hardly get into space anymore. The government (thus NASA) has lost interest in space exploration for the most part.
Quote this comment #10.1 Posted by Triliaeris on 03 Aug 2008 - 16:15
(Tzimisce said @ #1)
Private companies are the way to go, its the only way we will hardly get into space anymore. The government (thus NASA) has lost interest in space exploration for the most part.

I 100% agree which is why this was so important. Our current officials in office and our future officials have no interest in maintaining our space program. With all of our shuttles verging on retirement, private space launches may eventually be the only way America stays in the space game.

I truly hope that their next launch is successful.
Quote this comment #10.2 Posted by Mike Frett on 03 Aug 2008 - 19:42
Screw space exploration. Save the planet first.
Quote this comment #10.3 Posted by Shiranui on 04 Aug 2008 - 05:10
(Mike Frett said @ #10.2)
Screw space exploration. Save the planet first.


Er, I sincerely doubt that space exploration, with all the scientific advances it helps to bring about, is being carried out at the expense of conservation efforts.

I suppose you don't think the LHC should be turned on either?
(2 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #11 Posted by Zirus on 03 Aug 2008 - 18:07
so what happened to scotty's remains?
Quote this comment #11.1 Posted by Triliaeris on 03 Aug 2008 - 18:58
(Zirus said @ #11)
so what happened to scotty's remains?

Probably gone unfortunately. I hope that they didn't send all of his, or Gordon Cooper's, ashes up and only a small vial of it.
Quote this comment #11.2 Posted by Quick Reply on 04 Aug 2008 - 10:34
Having your ashes blown up from a really large rocket is still going out in style.
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #12 Posted by Don Matteo on 03 Aug 2008 - 21:36
Q: In the past, Elon made statements about tolerating only three launch failures. Is this still the case?
A: "I consider DemoFlight 2 to be enough of a success, given that it provides us the data to go operational, to put my "three strikes" rule to bed. I'm in this to make SpaceX the world's leading launch provider and then some." --Elon Musk, March 2007

from spaxex.com

Good thing he backed down from his initial plan.
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