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SpaceX has had a busy month – after successful launches on May 13 and May 14, the company launched a new fleet of Starlink internet satellites into orbit on Wednesday, and returned the used two-stage Falcon 9 used to send them off. SpaceX production manager Jessie Anderson said during a live webcast: “Falcon 9 has successfully lifted off carrying our 53 Starlink satellites into space.” This Saturday, SpaceX will launch its internet-satellite megaconstellation at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in which the Falcon 9 rocket will carry another batch of 60 Starlink satellites. The American space manufacturer was created by Mr Musk in 2002, and he has since stated on numerous occasions that his goal is to colonise Mars.
While SpaceX is now a huge name in the world of space exploration, its early years proved difficult due to multiple failed launches.
In 2006, Omelek Island was the setting of the first SpaceX rocket test of Falcon 1, but it developed a fault before crashing back down to earth.
Jeramy Hollman, a SpaceX engineer from 2002-2008, spoke about the failed launch in the Channel 4 documentary ‘Elon Musk: Superhero or Supervillain?’, released this week.
He said: “Everything looked good, and then it just basically came straight back down, 100-ish yards, into the ocean.”
The senior engineer for the Falcon I launch team, Mr Hollman claimed he was blamed by Mr Musk personally for the botched project.
He said Mr Musk accused him of failing to tighten a crucial nut which ultimately caused the crash, and said: “That was a pretty big blow, it felt at the very least unfair, and almost vindictive.”
Mr Hollman confronted his boss, but was shocked by his reaction, recalling the incident to the documentary: “Elon just gave me a blank stare.
“He just kind of looked at me bewildered that I was in front of him in the state that I was in.
“He seemed shocked that I was having that response to what I had read.”
An investigation into the launch failure revealed that Mr Hollman was not to blame for the crash, and after this two other rockets also failed on launch.
Co-founder of SpaceX, Jim Cattrell, said: “SpaceX was seen as a joke in its early days, I was considered a fool for working with him (Mr Musk).
“But one thing that Elon is very, very good at, is not even thinking about failing. He never imagines that he can fail. He just does it.”
Last year, Mr Hollman shared another surprising story about his time at SpaceX in the early days where the rocket engineers lived on a Pacific island and occasionally ran out of food.
On that island, called Omelek, the team was racing to build a launchpad and set up the company’s Falcon 1 rocket.
He explained: “We had been going around the clock.
“At some point everybody got fed up and decided that we needed to find a way to let them know that we were a part of this team as well.”
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The claims were made in Eric Berger’s book published at the time, titled ‘Liftoff’.
In March 2007, SpaceX’s first rocket finally reached space, and by the time the company launched its third flight, the employees on Omelek had set up a well-stocked kitchen where they took turns cooking meals.
They also had a “refrigerated sea van” with unlimited drinks, Mr Berger wrote.
Bulent Altan, an engineer who worked for SpaceX at the time, added: “Everything was fantastic luxury, compared to the first flight, so we loved it on Omelek.”
SpaceX no longer has any presence in the Marshall Islands.
‘Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX’ was written by Eric Berger and published by William Collins in 2021. You can buy it here.
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