The second attempted launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket occurred today, with the rocket making it into space before the rocket appears to have shut itself off due to an uncontrolled roll after 5 minutes of flight. In this segment of the webcast video the bell of the second stage appears to rub against the casing of the first stage - perhaps causing the roll.
SpaceX's CEO, Elon Musk noted it was a positive step for them:
“It was a very good day for SpaceX,” he said. “We successfully reached space and really retired almost all the risks associated with the rocket. ... I feel very good about having successful satellite launches later this year.”This is great news because SpaceX is one of the more promising low-cost potential heavy lift providers, and their Dragon capsule is one of the possible solutions for NASA's ISS re-supply issues, and hence becomes the possible genesis of a new family of cost effective vehicles to take humans into space.
UPDATE: Here is a video of the launch.
Elon Musk has been quoted as saying:
“I can speculate there are a few possible causes. It is could be a helium leak or it could be...we have a cold gas roll-control system, it could be that there was a problem with one of the roll-control jets. But it is difficult to say anything definitive until we have a close look at the telemetry...The only thing we can say definitely at this point is that there was a roll anomaly on the second that resulted in us not achieving the intended orbit and, like I said, not likely a full orbit. However, that is fairly easy thing to address. Certainly if it is a leak issue we'll go over and make sure any potential leaks are addressed in spades. If it's roll-control cold gas thrusters, I think that would be a very easy thing to address as well. Of the possible causes, I think there's very few that would really take much effort to address.”
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