The SpaceX Falcon 1 Days

I just finished Eric Berger’s book Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX.

This photo is from the “Command Van” (mobile mission control trailer for Falcon 1 launches) for the first customer satellite launch success. Many of the early employees in the book have paper name cards at their stations, with Elon Musk next to Tom Mueller, the first SpaceX hire. Tom is to my right fully engrossed in the sensor readings from his Merlin 1C engine design.

In the comments below are some of my flickr photos from the pivotal era as Falcon 1 transitioned from a string of early failures to success (2008-2009).

Elon’s reflections:
“The crazy thing is that I originally budgeted for three attempts,” Musk said. “And frankly, I thought that if we couldn’t get this thing to orbit in three failures, we deserved to die. That was my going-in proposition.” (p.165)

By 2008 “I had to allocate a lot of capital to Tesla and SolarCity, so I was out of money,” Musk said. “We had three failures under our belt. So it’s pretty hard to go raise money. The recession is starting to hit. I didn’t even have a house.” (182)

“As bad as Flight Three had gone, he wanted to give his people one final swing. In the factory, they had the parts for a final Falcon 1 rocket. ‘Build it,’ he said. ‘And then fly it.’ What they did not have was much time. If this rocket crashed and burned, well, everyone pretty much knew what that meant.

The period that followed would be the most memorable and arguably important period of the company’s history, hardening its DNA and setting the stage for SpaceX to become the most transformative aerospace company in the world.” (183)