[oasis-members] SpaceX Falcon 1 Launched and Lost, but "Successful"

[MP1Walsh at cs.com]

The email puts a somewhat different perspective on this as I
don't read the term "successful flight" anywhere.

Musk should have avoided a few words:

Even after the qualifications the remark

"The outcome was great" should have been avoided.

If this reflects his public statements then the press misrepresented
his report, which they will nearly always do if given the opportunity
for a catchy headline.

> 
> Given that the primary objectives were demonstrating responsive launch
> and gathering test data in advance of our first operational satellite
> launch later this year, the outcome was great.

This is unfortunate wording even with the qualifications.
 
> The second stage
> didn't achieve full orbital velocity, due to a roll excitation late in
> the burn, but that should be a comparatively easy fix once we examine
> the flight data.  

I am not sure that the use of the term "comparatively easy fix" should have
been used before examining the flight data.

> 
> Finally, thank you to everyone at SpaceX for working so hard to make
> this a great test.  This is a big leap forward for commercial
> spaceflight

Thanking everyone at SpaceX for working hard to provide a great test
is appropriate.

I believe the claim of a "big leap forward for commercial spaceflight"
awaits a completely successful orbital flight.  Too many 
"great outcomes" like this could be fatal.

If Elton Musk's main problem is over-hyping the language on a
report of a test flight that didn't quite make it all the way then
he doesn't have too many concerns.  I hope he does as well as
the Burt Rutan's X-Prize win where they had an incident in the
pre-prize winning test flight that was resolved prior to the
winning flights without another test flight.

Mike Walsh