Now comes the SpaceX rocket whodunit: A complex mystery

Rather, the rocket exploded quite spectacularly in mid-air, 2 minutes and 19 seconds after liftoff. “Data suggests counterintuitive cause”, disclosed Founder Elon Musk.

Two and a half minutes after its launching the rocket crashed back down to Earth immediately.

“They supply the station with all these contingencies in mind”, Stephanie Schierholz, a NASA spokeswoman said in an interview with Washington Post.

Michael Suffredini, manager of the ISS programme, called the incident a “big loss”, but added “we will pick ourselves up and get on to the next flight”.

The Sunday launch followed 18 successful flights before it. As of this writing, SpaceX has not yet released a timeline of when launches will resume.

At an afternoon news conference, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president, confirmed that the problem appeared to have occurred in the second stage but provided no additional details.

The unmanned SpaceX cargo ship was carrying over 4,000 lb (1,814 kg) of supplies to the ISS, including materials for numerous scientific experiments and adapter modules for docking the next generation of spacecraft with the station.

The Commercial Resupply Services 7 (CRS-7) run by SpaceX is part of a $2bn contract with Nasa.

“The astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months”. The next mission will be carried out by a Russian Progress spacecraft, while a Japanese cargo flight is set for August.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Anyone who comes into contact with debris from an exploded SpaceX rocket is being warned to leave the area quickly and report it to officials, NASA says.

“It gives us a chance to learn an environment where we can tolerate a little more risk and then move forward with the crew environment”, Gerstenmaier said.

In April, the Russian space agency lost control of its cargo ship en route to the ISS and were forced to abandon it.

The explosion also marks a setback for SpaceX, which was poised to compete for the first time against United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co and the current sole launch provider for military and spy satellite launches, to launch a Global Positioning System III satellite.