Friday, March 24, 2006

Falcon 1 is lost.......

The countdown was very exciting. When the vehicle lifted off, I jumped around the house like a maniac. The initial on-baord video was great.

And then the on-board cam started skipping frames.
And then the frame froze at what looked like a few hundred feet, looking down on Omelek. I could just about make out the shore outline, a warehouse structure, and a road surrounding the launchpad.

And then it came back again. But now you could see the vehicle was rolling and pitching.

I quickly lost ground reference.

And then the signal was lost.

SpaceflightNow is reporting that according to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX vice president of business development, the vehicle was lost. No detailes as of yet.

I'm so sorry.

Whatever happened, I hope the SpaceX Team can fix it and fly again as soon as possible.