Launching a Truck Into Space 145
malfunctioned components needed to be upgraded. While
the rest of the team tried to find a supplier who hadn’t
closed on a Sunday, a SpaceXer took a plane from Kwaj
back to SpaceX in Los Angeles. They found a supplier in
Minnesota, so an intern from SpaceX in Los Angeles had
to fly there to get the components. The intern got back to
Los Angeles where they tested the new parts before they
flew them to Kwaj. “The SpaceX launch team in Kwaj is
less than 30 people,” Kimbal said. “When another rocket
company launches in Kwaj, they bring 300 people. What
they do is beyond us.”^283
When the rocket finally launched in March 2006, it flew
for 33 seconds before the flight ended abruptly. The load,
an experimental satellite from the US Air Force Academy,
came crashing down through the roof of SpaceX’s machine
shop, landing mostly intact on the floor.^281 “Everyone was
cheering,” Mueller said. “But my engine went on fire. It
burned through the wires, and the data was terrible. 33
seconds in, it flamed out and Falcon fell a mile back onto
the reef. We lost everything, all data, everything. There was
the jubilation of it lifting off and the agony of it crashing. It
was a pretty unpleasant time to be hanging with Elon.”^278
SpaceX released an official video showing the crash.
It’s possible to see how the white rocket begins to turn due
to a fuel leak, before it finally crashed on a reef close to the
launch site. To figure out what went wrong, Elon and his
team had to spend the rest of the day collecting scattered
pieces of the rocket. “I was picking up bits of rocket at the
launch site,” Elon said.^63 After several months, the SpaceX