Iceberg, Right Ahead 216
The first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong, got the
question what he would do if the Lunar Module didn’t
start again after it had landed on the Moon. “Well, that’s
an unpleasant thing to think about,” Armstrong replied.
“We’ve chosen not to think about that up to the present
time. We don’t think that’s at all a likely situation. It’s
simply a possible one.”^16
Armstrong was negative to SpaceX. Elon said it was
a disappointing moment when a hero from his childhood
didn’t encourage him to pursue his dream. “He has never
spoken to us or visited us, and we’ve made many invita-
tions,” Elon said. “I’m optimistic that he will visit us and
learn more. We have a photo of the [SpaceX] launch signed
by all the Apollo astronauts with the exception of Neil.”^316
Unfortunately, Armstrong passed away in 2012 before he
had a chance to visit SpaceX.
A rocket can fail in a thousand different ways, but the
number one reason is engine malfunctions. “There are a
thousand things that can happen when you go to light a
rocket engine, and only one of them is good,” Tom Mueller
said. “We knew it would be hard, but it was harder than we
thought.”^288
The third attempt to launch the Falcon 1 rocket oc-
curred on August 3, 2008. “I stood around with the then 350
or so employees, and we cheered the vehicle on as it took
off, and as we were watching the mission clock and knew
that the stages were about to separate – the video feed was
cut,” a SpaceXer said. “We knew something had gone wrong
in a big way.”^404 The rocket had failed for a third time. The