October 2003 update: first engine lost in testing

From:: Elon Musk
Date:: October 2003 ('SpaceX update for October' 2003; HobbySpace says it arrived by email on 14 November 2003 and was online by 16 November 2003.)
To:: SpaceX update mailing list

Excerpt. Only this much of the email has been made public.

A fuel valve actuator failed to open properly, allowing liquid oxygen to flow back up the fuel injector and ignite inside the engine plumbing. [...] [B]y the end of the month, the first Falcon rocket will roll off the assembly line, be mounted on the mobile launcher and sent to Washington DC. [...] finished coding of the Falcon vehicle flight simulator.

About this email

Quoted passages: a fuel valve actuator failure let liquid oxygen ignite inside the engine plumbing, the first engine SpaceX lost in testing; the first Falcon is to roll off the line by month's end and go to Washington DC; and the vehicle flight simulator code is finished.

Notes

Excerpt only: these are the passages that HobbySpace's RLV News quoted verbatim from the newsletter when it came out; HobbySpace's own paraphrased highlights are not included. The complete newsletter was posted on spacex.com (Updates section), which is no longer online, and no full-text reprint was found. '[B]y' is HobbySpace's bracketed capitalisation. HobbySpace's 14 November 2003 summary also mentions the 4 December unveiling at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, a DARPA/Air Force FALCON phase-one contract and in-house machining.

Where it came from

Published by Musk; attribution single-source.

HobbySpace RLV News (Clark S. Lindsey)

SpaceX, newsletter. Tags: spacex-update, falcon-1, merlin, engine-failure, washington-dc-unveiling

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