SpaceX fixed the Falcon 1 by simply adding a stage separation delay
Justin Fishner Wolfson · SpaceX IPO: Inside the Firm That Owns 1% · Sourcery with Molly O'Shea · Jun 14, 2026 · at 26:18
Justin Fishner-Wolfson, Co-Founder of 137 Ventures and former Founders Fund investor, recounts watching the third Falcon 1 launch failure and the rapid engineering fix before flight four.
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“That was the one where the second stage had hit the first stage, and so, you know, it wasn't fully successful, and I remember, I think I was standing next to Gwen or something, and she, you know, I was like, oh, you know, what, so how are you guys gonna fix this? And she was just like, I think we just need to add a delay between, between the, you know, on the stage separation and like Steve Davis, I think, said it was like seven and a half seconds or whatever And so, like, that was it, right? Like, that was the only change they had to make, like, and then on the fourth launch, everything worked, worked perfectly.”
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