The hidden story behind one of SpaceX’s wettest and wildest launches (original) (raw)

Ten years ago today, when a Falcon 9 rocket took off from Florida, something strange happened. Dramatically, as the rocket lifted off, a fountain of dirty water splashed upward alongside the vehicle, coating the rocket in grime.

Following the ultimately successful liftoff of this third cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk was asked about the incident during a news conference. He offered a fairly generic answer without going into the details.

"We sprayed a bunch of water all around the pad," Musk said. "Essentially what happened is we splashed dirty water on ourselves. So it’s a little embarrassing, but no harm done."

He was correct, but there's more to the story. And on the 10th anniversary of the mission, it's fun to revisit what actually happened. Before reading further, you may want to watch the launch webcast here, time-stamped to the final seconds before liftoff.

Flight nine delayed

In early 2014, SpaceX was still breaking in a new version of its Falcon 9 rocket, v1.1, and striving to increase the frequency of its launches. The company had completed a pair of commercial launches to geostationary transfer orbit in December and January—the first time it had ever flown in back-to-back months—and was pressing toward its third cargo supply mission for NASA, Commercial Resupply Services-3.

SpaceX initially targeted a window from the second half of January into the middle of February for this launch in 2014, but this was delayed due to a coolant leak on board the space station. NASA subsequently reset the launch date to February 22, and then March 1, and finally March 16. However, as this day neared, SpaceX asked for a two-week delay to address technical problems with Dragon.

But the problems persisted, including a fire on the Air Force base near the launch site that caused issues with radars used to track rockets in flight. Then, crushingly, an issue was discovered with the rocket's stage separation system just one hour before a planned liftoff on April 14. Another delay.

All of these issues weighed heavily on the shoulders of a 30-something engineer named Ricky Lim, who had come to SpaceX in January 2008. After helping the company push through its Falcon 1 teething pains, Lim helped with the initial launches of the Falcon 9 rocket. Now, on the rocket's ninth flight, Lim found himself planted in the hot seat in Cape Canaveral, Florida.