“COME hell or high water, we are going to make this work.” That was Elon Musk’s reaction to the loss of his Falcon 1 launcher on its maiden flight last week.
Musk, an internet millionaire, had hoped to shake up the space industry by offering Falcon 1 as a cut-price alternative to conventional rockets. The vehicle has a reusable first stage, which means Musk’s company, SpaceX, can charge just $6.7 million per launch, less than a quarter of the price of comparably sized rockets.
According to a preliminary investigation, a fuel leak near the main engine caused a fire on…
