Pat Flannery wrote in news:b9GdnTY-
hdakotatelephone:



Alan Erskine wrote:

We'll have to wait for the failure analysis, but I'm guessing
there was a guidance system problem from the oscillations.

--Damon


Damn shame; they've done so much work, they deserve to succeed.


Here's a timeline of what was supposed to happen and when:
http://spaceflightnow.com/falcon/003/timeline.html
When the program got going, Elon Musk said he could afford three failed
launches... this is failed launch #3.
I'll bet they'll live to regret trying the second launch inside of a
hour after the aborted one without looking the vehicle over and trying
again tomorrow.
At this point, I'd be looking a bit askance at Falcon 9. ;-)

I'd guess the investigation will be looking at the performance of the
new regen version of the Merlin, and at guidance. The roll oscillation
was certainly suspicious but things otherwise looked relatively normal
until the video feed quit.

Possibly the vehicle was off-course, which could have been guidance or
engine malfunction/underperformance. At some point a computer or flight
safety pushes the red button...

--Damon