Spacex Falcon 1 Launch 3 Failure

I didn't see another topic about this so I thought I would post it.

News link here:

www.nytimes.com...

Apparently a problem occurred during stage separation.

You might remember that the failure of the second launch appeared to occur due to the first stage striking the second stage causing fuel slosh and uncorrectable oscillations.

I guess they didn't work on that problem enough?

I found this on wikipedia:

"The webcast documenting the launch showed via the aft facing onboard camera that the first stage violently recontacted second stage seconds after the separation.[citation needed] Several seconds later major portions of the second stage were torn away with the first stage. The second stage was observed to tumble and propellent covered the camera lens.[citation needed] Shortly thereafter a major explosion was observed and the video signal was lost by the receivers on the ground. Telemetry data continued as the second stage re-entered on a trajectory slightly north of the first stage. The second stage appeared to never ignite."

Not sure if this is true as I have been unable to find the footage.

Seems a shame but like I said they already had a similar problem last time during staging so I guess they should have looked into it a little more. I guess they didn't want to delay anything with this being the first operational flight.

I still think they have achieved an awful lot considering how long they have been doing it and the relatively low budget.

Hopefully the next one will go better!