SpaceX Falcon I Fails

SpaceX's first attempt at a privately funded satellite launch failed on Friday. This is a shame. Although I was fully expecting a failure, due to to their over ambitious claims about their ability do this better than everyone else, I am dissapointed. I was hoping I was wrong and they could suceed on the first try. When engineers get cocky they also get sloppy. The initial study of the telemetry data indicates that some sort of fuel leak started a fire, leading to an explosion about 1 minute after liftoff.

Hopefully, they will fix the problem and get another Falcon I ready to launch soon. Amazingly, it appears that they payload, a tiny research satellite, may have been saved!

The image shows the fire starting at the "business end" of the rocket:

Those red-orange flames at the rear of the fuel tank are not supposed to be there.