Liftoff

Elon Musk and the desperate early days that launched SPACEX

Eric Berger, 2021, Beaverton Library 629.4 BER

Eric Berger is Senior Space Editor at ars technica

• mostly about Falcon 1 development and test
• p001 Starhopper landing test fail, crash, but FAA 500 foot altitude limit prevented fireball
• p005 USC students Brian Bjelde (Rat Chicken) and Phil Kassouf, SpaceX new hures
• p007 Gans Koenigsmann VP avionics
• p009 Adeo Ressi entrepreneur friend

• p010 Chris Thompson Boeing -> SpaceX

• p011 Jim Cantrell
• p011 John Garvey Boeing rocket engines
• p011 Tom Mueller (p29 Merlin engine)
• p011 Reaction Research Society, So Cal rocketry club

• p011 Ignition! John Drury Clark

• p012 Mike Griffin, future NASA administrator
• p012 Peter Diamandis
• p014 2022 May 6 Space Exploration Technologies

• p015 Hans Koenigsmann Microcosm

• p015 1310 East Grand Ave El Segundo satellite

• p017 Mary Beth Brown, assistant to Musk 2022 August
• p017 Gwynne Shotwell
• p018 Steve Johnson

• p019 Spincraft propellant tank provider

• p020 Phil Kassouf EE Falcon 1 onboard computer
  • interview: south east south triangle at north pole, but also 1+1/2pi miles north of south pole
• p021 Bulent Altan - Musk asks Larry Page to transfer Ms. Altan to Google's LA office
• p022 Florence Li

• p028 Tim Buzza: McGregor test site director

• p033 Reaction Research Society So.Cal website

• p035 Bezos Blue Origin

• p036 "Bezos is not great at engineering, to be frank" says Musk

• p037 Merlin similar to NASA Fastrac rocket engine

• p038 Barber-Nichols turbopump contractor, 150 pounds, 3000 horsepower, evolved to 12000 h.p. in Falcon 9

• p040 Jeremy Hollman, gas generator engineer
• p041 machining firm Mustang Engineering, owner Bob Reagan became SpaceX VP of machining
• p043 pintle injector, TRW sues alleging trade secret theft runway 35

• p044 McGregor site former Beal Aerospace, 10 mi from airport runway 35 ( 5000 ft)

• p049 Anne Chinnery b1966, USAF Academy masters aeronautical engineering 1993, 1999 Microcosm, Launch Engineer SpaceX 2003-2013, now Firefly Aerospace

  • note: Firefly Alpha FLTA002 deployed 3 satellites 1 October 2022

• p052 Space Launch Complex 3 at Vandenberg

  • note: I watched the first launch attempt of AMROC IRR from VAFB 576A3 120.60W 34.78N in 1989, 15 miles north of SLC-3, 120.588W 34.643N

• p055 Shotwell and Koenigsmann look for an equatorial launch site, find Kwajalein Atoll on map, contact Huntsville LtCol Tim Mango

• p056 2003 June Thompson, Koenigsmann, Chinnery
• p059 Vandenberg: dump LOX before approaching rocket and fixing it, refill from another mobile tanker truck
• p060 May 27 successful first stage static test
• p062 George Koopman (1989 ISDC speech), James French, Mike Griffin
• p064 October 1989 launch fail, stuck LOX valve
• p065 SLC-3E for Lockheed Atlas-V. SLC-4 for Titan IV, debris from a Falcon failure too much of a threat
• p066 Falcon 1 could only launch after Titan, six month wait (so far) drained too much money
• p067 Musk tells Tim Buzza we're going to Kwaj (an Army site)

• p069 Hans Koenigsmann loved diving there, especially the sunken Prinz Eugen cruiser

• p071 Hans organized move and installation, forty foot shopping containers, 30 tons, some by air
• p073 only a small concrete bunker on Omelek (open at both ends), poured concrete for launchpad and build hangar
• p073 SpaceX control center on main Kwaj island, surface line-of-sight radio poor, but OK at height of rocket antennas
• p073 pad ready in four months, fall 2005
• p078 late 2005 Nov, first static fire test delayed past 6 hour window, second try Dec 20, unsafe winds
• p079 stuck valve, buckled tank, no 2005 launch

• p079 Microcosm James Wertz Scorpius

• p080 Koenigsmann attempts to connect Musk and Wertz
• p081 Musk interviews Koenigsmann at home, likes personal library with aerospace and SF

• p082 connecting umbilicals daylong task, JLG lift

• p083 Second stage main power distribution box, capacitor fail, voltage rating too small
• p084 return to LA with boards, intern flies to Digikey in Minnesota and back for new capacitors

  • why not a local distributor???

• p088 just after launch, engine fire, shut down half a minute later, fell in flames. Fuel leak near top of engine.

• p089 Kimbal Musk

• p090 payload USAF Academy FalconSAT-2, now in academy museum.

• p096 May 2002, Gwynne Shotwell meets Musk, hires her as VP Sales in September

• p098 Steven Walker DARPA supported SpaceX and Gary Hudson's AirLaunch

• p105 2003 Thanksgiving, Musk shows off Falcon 1 in front of DC Air and Space Museum

• p107-10 Kistler Aerospace fought by Musk, led to COTS

• p112 Lockheed Waterton Canyon
• p114 Malaysians pay $6M to launch RazakSAT, DARPA bought two missions
• p115 wins $278M COTS contract

• p119 Falcon 1 failure fuel leak, blamed on a small B-nut ( Blind-nut? ) on the kerosene line improperly tightened

• p121 in fact, the aluminum B-nut failed due to inter-granular corrosion cracking

• p122 should have used ACF-50 anti-corrosion lubricant, and kept the vehicle in a climate-controlled hangar

• p123 engineer forgot to close second stage LOX vent valve

• p125 2005 Musk hires Jim Maser, former president of Sea Launch, Ukrainian Zenit-3SL rockets launched from equator. Maser left 9 months later.

• p130 Florence Li structures
• more later