SpaceX Launch Ends In Failure, Rocket Erupts

Moreover, there are a number of other resupply missions set to take place over the next few months.

The rocket was carrying more than 4,000 pounds of payload. In engineering-speak it’s called a fault tree analysis. Self-destruct commands, or Flight Termination Systems (FTS), are used to remove the risk of an out-of-control rocket. Officials were hopeful this flight might be the one to finally get it right. “It’s a complex mystery with multiple suspects”. Musk’s team is now investigating the details of the event, and is analyzing the cause of the explosion. The rocket shattered while traveling at 2,900 mph, about 27 miles up.

The investigation of the rocket that exploded just two minutes and 19 seconds after its 10:21 a.m. blast off is ongoing. Its nine engines fired well.

“There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank”. The cargo is probably toast, but there could still be useful data if the capsule could be recovered.

Gwyne Shotwell, SpaceX president, re-echoed the results of the preliminary assessment, explaining that it was too early to determine the cause of the accident. The Payload also included experiments, a replacement spacesuit, a camera to record meteors into Earth’s atmosphere and a docking adapter.

“SpaceX remains certified and can compete for the upcoming GPS III launch service”, Lt. General Samuel Greaves, who heads the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, wrote in an email to Reuters.

Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies – which is in the midst of settling in Cameron County at Boca Chica Beach – soon will be a neighbor to competitor United Launch Alliance, a fellow aerospace firm with a manufacturing facility here which understands firsthand the hard aspects of space flight.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has classified the explosion as a “mishap”.

The company’s customers have reiterated support for SpaceX as they wait for all the details on what went wrong, with NASA rightly pointing out that SpaceX has already flown six successful missions for the space agency.

Mike Suffredinito, NASA station program manager said that the global Space Station crew, including an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts has enough supply of food on board to last until October.

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