[NosferaDrew]

The first attempt at launching Falcon 1 at 8PM PDT tonight was aborted at 1 second before liftoff.
They mentioned something about one of the rockets being 1% over the limit causing the abort.

They recycled the rocket and a short time later reset for another attempt.
This time the rocket lifted off without a hitch - until about 2 minutes into the flight.

Suddenly the onboard camera stopped, they cut to the commentators and one says something to the effect of, "We've experienced an anomaly. We'll get back to you when we have more information."

I captured both launches and am uploading them now.
More to come...

Here's a link to SpaceX.

[NosferaDrew]

Here's a message from CEO/CTO Elon Musk:

Plan Going Forward It was obviously a big disappointment not to reach orbit on this flight [Falcon 1, Flight 3]. On the plus side, the flight of our first stage, with the new Merlin 1C engine that will be used in Falcon 9, was picture perfect. Unfortunately, a problem occurred with stage separation, causing the stages to be held together. This is under investigation and I will send out a note as soon as we understand exactly what happened. The most important message I’d like to send right now is that SpaceX will not skip a beat in execution going forward. We have flight four of Falcon 1 almost ready for flight and flight five right behind that. I have also given the go ahead to begin fabrication of flight six. Falcon 9 development will also continue unabated, taking into account the lessons learned with Falcon 1. We have made great progress this past week with the successful nine engine firing. As a precautionary measure to guard against the possibility of flight 3 not reaching orbit, SpaceX recently accepted a significant investment. Combined with our existing cash reserves, that ensures we will have more than sufficient funding on hand to continue launching Falcon 1 and develop Falcon 9 and Dragon. There should be absolutely zero question that SpaceX will prevail in reaching orbit and demonstrating reliable space transport. For my part, I will never give up and I mean never. Thanks for your hard work and now on to flight four. --Elon-- (In a message to Employees, August 2, 2008)

Here's the first attempt at launch

Sorry for the crappy audio. I'm ditching Snapz Pro X. I hear good things about iShowU.

I just found out that the payload contained the remains of James "Scotty" Doohan of Star Trek fame:

The SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled to lift off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean as early as today. It will carry a 220-pound Pentagon satellite, two small NASA-developed payloads and two canisters of cremated remains from Doohan and 199 other people. The canisters are part of a payload sponsored by Houston-based Space Services Inc.

Poor Scotty.

[curiousuburb]

"The engines just cannae take it, cap'n."

[drewprops]

It didn't only just have Scotty's remains.... I was out of town yesterday, but I see that I received an email note about the launch...

The Explorers Flight is our seventh, and largest ever, memorial spaceflight. 208 participants from 14 nations are aboard. Also aboard this mission are messages of tribute submitted by thousands of fans and admirers of Mercury 7 Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper and beloved Star Trek actor James Doohan, both of whom are Explorers Flight participants. Launch will occur from SpaceX's launch facility in the Marshall Islands, located about halfway between Hawaii and Australia.

[Brad]

Wait... WTF? Who the hell thought it was a good idea to include any irreplaceable cargo of any potential value on a first-ever launch?!

Ah, never mind. I mis-read that as this being the first flight of the Falcon 1.

[NosferaDrew]

Here's the second attempt at launch - successful launch, but failure on the way up.