Falcon 1 Crash Due to Human Error

It looks as though the Falcon 1 Rocket that crashed March 24 th in the Pacific ocean only 25 minutes after launch was not a design flaw it was human error.

“All current analysis shows that the nature of the problem was a pad processing error the day before the launch,” Elon Musk chairman and chief executive officer of El Segundo, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) said during an April 5 presentation at the National Space Symposium.

The mistake was made by one of SpaceX’s most experienced pad technicians who was working on the rocket the day before the launch and failed to tighten a tiny fuel pipe fitting. The fuel then leaked out and started a fire around the top of the main engine damaging the first-stage helium pneumatic system which is used to pressurize the rockets fuel tanks. This caused the engine to fail and the Falcon 1 to its doom.

“If we had been looking at the right data stream at the right time we would have caught it,” Musk said.

The Falcon 1 was developed by SpaceX to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space.

It looks as though the Falcon 1 Rocket that crashed March 24 th in the Pacific ocean only 25 minutes after launch was not a design flaw it was human error.

“All current analysis shows that the nature of the problem was a pad processing error the day before the launch,” Elon Musk chairman and chief executive officer of El Segundo, Calif.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) said during an April 5 presentation at the National Space Symposium.

The mistake was made by one of SpaceX’s most experienced pad technicians who was working on the rocket the day before the launch and failed to tighten a tiny fuel pipe fitting. The fuel then leaked out and started a fire around the top of the main engine damaging the first-stage helium pneumatic system which is used to pressurize the rockets fuel tanks. This caused the engine to fail and the Falcon 1 to its doom.

“If we had been looking at the right data stream at the right time we would have caught it,” Musk said.

The Falcon 1 was developed by SpaceX to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of access to space.