SpaceX was aboard a C-17 jet almost above Hawaii.
In 2008, before the company successfully launched a single rocket, two dozen SpaceX engineers carried its Falcon 1 rocket into Hawaii inside an Air Force aircraft. From there, a barge will take it for one more launch to the company’s launch facility in the Marshall Islands. That was the company’s last chance: if this failed, it was done for SpaceX.
But before the jet landed, SpaceXers heard “a loud, terrifying, popping sound” according to a new book. Eric Berger, A journalist and senior space editor for Aras Technica said the rocket was exploding due to an imbalance of pressure. So Zach Dunn, one of SpaceX’s green engineers, went into his stomach. His quick fix saved the company – and possibly his own life.
Burger’s book, “Lift Off F,” documents this moment and other wild, tragic events of the early years of SpaceX – including building a lunchpad on a remote island, revolting by engineers trapped on that island without eating, and sending conflicts into orbit.
HarperCollins Publishers
Eventually SpaceX reached orbit using a very rocket that almost crashed into mid-air.
SpaceX engineers faced a mid-flight crisis
By September 2008, SpaceX was almost out of money. The company failed in all attempts to bring the rocket into orbit, so it did not win any contracts. Kasturi was running out of cash to deliver pumps to SpaceX and Tesla, both of which cost Rs.
Financial crisis
Blow. SpaceX only had enough resources for one more launch attempt.
Musk gave his engineers six weeks to hail Mary’s efforts. While they were preparing to transport a Falcon 1 rocket from California to the Marshall Islands, engineers glid iled in a C-17 jet at Los Angeles International Airport. For the first few hours of a flight to Hawaii, they flew easily over the Pacific, and kicked the cargo-car seats around the rocket. Someone broke the guitar.
But on the descent, dents appeared along the body of the rocket as huge ps and pings passed through the cargo area. Engineers realized that its liquid oxygen fuel tank jet was not cutting enough air to keep the change in descending pressure.
The tank was basically “breathing through a straw,” Berger writes.
As the pressure in the jet’s cargo bay increased compared to the pressure inside the rocket’s fuel tank, the Falcon 1 began to crush.
“The first thought I had was that this thing would flow and turn around again,” Anne Chinnery, who was managing SpaceX launch operations at the time, told Burger. “And it would kill all of us who were sitting next to the rocket on the jump seats of the plane. So I hopefully told everyone to go ahead of the rocket.”
Dunn, who joined SpaceX in 2006 as an intern, quickly climbed to become a propulsion engineer, saving only the rocket, its engineers and SpaceX.
In the stomach of an animal
Zach Dunn, a former senior engineer at SpaceX, now works for the 3D printed rocket startup Relativity Space.
Zachary Dunn / Relativity Space
An engineer told jet pilots to fly more aircraft, where air pressure was lower. But the pilots had enough fuel to circle the base once more before landing. According to Burger, he bought SpaceX’s engineers in about 10 minutes.
They cut the shrink wrapping envelope of the rocket and found the C-17’s onboard tool kit.
Dunn told engineer Mike Sheehan to hold his ankle and let it out if the rocket started to explode. It turned into an interstate Falcon 1 – the section between the rocket’s wide base, which propels it through the air, and the smaller section that continues into orbit.
In the darkness of the Falcon 1’s abdomen, Dunn went to the liquid-oxygen tank, scraping parts of the sharp rocket scraping his back. He reached a large pressureline line toward the fuel tank, gave it an open turn from the wrench, and heard the sound of the wind blowing. He then called Sheehan for his help.
“Sheenhan screamed for help by pulling the bite out of the interstage between the pressure lines and the tangle of valves,” Berger wrote. “It hurt like hell, but Dunn emerged to pay for his efforts.”
The SpaceXers returned to their seats, and the rocket turned again as the jet landed in Hawaii.
Rocket launch to rescue SpaceX
Although she survived the flight, the Falcon 1 was damaged with an exhale from her brush. To save just a week, SpaceX’s team rushed to dismantle it, replace broken parts, repair another, and reassemble their rocket.
Falcon 1 rocket.
SpaceX
Then on September 28, the Falcon 1 roared for life on Omelec Island, escaped from the ground and went into orbit.
In the control room, team members “just exploded,” Dunn told Burger. “We went absolutely wild. We were all jumping around. Hugging each other. Screaming. It was a fair celebration.”
SpaceX proved that its rocket could land from the planet. After that, the company put together enough contracts to continue the flow of funds.
Dunn remained at SpaceX for another decade, eventually becoming senior vice president of production and launch. Last year, it left SpaceX to oversee manufacturing on Relativity Space, a startup that aims to automate the rocket-production process with 3D printing.
