SpaceX rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral ahead of launch

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In a statement, the company blamed the blast on "an anomaly" and said no-one had been injured.

It said the rocket's payload, a satellite due to be launched on Saturday, was also destroyed.

The force of the blast shook buildings several miles away and sent a plume of smoke high above the complex.

SpaceX is seeking to create a new era of reusable rockets and affordable private space travel and has used its Falcon-9 rocket to take supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

In December last year, the California-based company successfully landed a Falcon-9 back on Earth after a mission - a first in rocketry.

It went on to recover five more boosters, with most of them touching down on an ocean platform.

The idea is to re-fly these rockets, and the first such "second hand" vehicle is scheduled to launch in October.

SpaceX is run out of Hawthorne near Los Angeles by Elon Musk, who made his fortune with internet companies.

As well as being the rocket company's CEO, he also heads up the Tesla electric car company.

Analysis: David Shukman, Science Editor, BBC News

Whatever the details of what went wrong at the launch-pad, this is bad news for one of the most ambitious-ever space programmes.

SpaceX has big dreams for cheap, frequent and distant space travel. This test-firing was meant to be routine, part of an accelerating series of launches.

Beyond it, SpaceX is looking to make history by re-using one of the massive first stages that was returned to Earth intact. The company is also preparing to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.

Most exotic of all, the company's boss, Elon Musk, is due later this month to unveil his plans for a Mars colony, and how that would take effect.

There had been talk of the first SpaceX unmanned mission to the Red Planet in a couple of years' time. All its timetables will now be jeopardy.

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station said a "significant" explosion happened just after 09:00 (14:00 GMT) at Launch Complex 40, which is leased by SpaceX.

"Our emergency management teams are responding right now," said spokesman Bryan Purtell.

The rocket was carrying the Israeli-built

Amos-6 communications satellite.

Source: SpaceX rocket explodes at Cape Canaveral ahead of launch - BBC News

 

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX has released updates regarding the Sept. 1, 2016, accident that saw a Falcon 9 rocket and the Amos-6 satellite it carried destroyed. The NewSpace company has provided regular posts since the accident took place at 9:07 a.m. EDT (13:07 GMT) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s SLC-40. The following posts have been issued SpaceX since yesterday’s incident: September 2, 6:45 p.m. EDT SpaceX has begun the careful and deliberate process of understanding the causes and fixes for yesterday’s incident. We will continue to provide regular updates on our progress and findings, to the fullest extent we can share publicly. We deeply regret the loss of AMOS-6, and safely and reliably returning to flight to meet the demands of our customers is our chief priority. SpaceX’s business is robust, with approximately 70 missions on our manifest worth over $10 billion. In the aftermath of yesterday’s events, we are grateful for the continued support and unwavering confidence that our commercial customers as well as NASA and the United States Air Force have placed in us. Overview of the incident: – Yesterday, at SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, an anomaly took place about eight minutes in advance of a scheduled test firing of a Falcon 9 rocket. – The anomaly on the pad resulted in the loss of the vehicle. – This was part of a standard pre-launch static fire to demonstrate the health of the vehicle prior to an eventual launch. – At the time of the loss, the launch vehicle was vertical and in the process of being fueled for the test. At this time, the data indicates the anomaly originated around the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Per standard operating procedure, all personnel were clear of the pad. There were no injuries. To identify the root cause of the anomaly, SpaceX began its investigation immediately after the loss, consistent with accident investigation plans prepared for such a contingency. These plans include the preservation of all possible evidence and the assembly of an Accident Investigation Team, with oversight by the Federal Aviation Administration and participation by NASA, the United States Air Force and other industry experts. We are currently in the early process of reviewing approximately 3000 channels of telemetry and video data covering a time period of just 35-55 milliseconds. As for the Launch Pad itself, our teams are now investigating the status of SLC-40. The pad clearly incurred damage, but the scope has yet to be fully determined. We will share more data as it becomes available. SpaceX currently operates 3 launch pads – 2 in Florida and 1 in California at Vandenberg Air Force Base. SpaceX’s other launch sites were not affected by yesterday’s events. Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base is in the final stages of an operational upgrade and Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center remains on schedule to be operational in November. Both pads are capable of supporting Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. We are confident the two launch pads can support our return to flight and fulfill our upcoming manifest needs. Again, our number one priority is to safely and reliably return to flight for our customers, as well as to take all the necessary steps to ensure the highest possible levels of safety for future crewed missions with the Falcon 9. We will carefully and thoroughly investigate and address this issue.

Source: SpaceX releases updates on Amos-6 Falcon 9 accident - SpaceFlight Insider

 

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Space Communications (Spacecom), owner of the Amos-6 satellite that was destroyed in the Sept. 1 pad explosion along with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket tasked with lofting it into orbit, is preparing to claim compensation from the satellite’s manufacturer, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), as well as SpaceX. Jerusalem Online reported Spacecom will demand $205 million from IAI and $50 million from SpaceX. They also mentioned the company’s equity decreased by $30 million due to the accident. In the days following the explosion, Spacecom’s stock, which trades in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under SCC, fell by more than 40 percent.
In statement released Sept. 4 to the exchange, Spacecom said because the failure occurred prior to a launch, their satellite was not covered under any launch insurance. According to Globes, what premium they had purchased will be returned to the company. Additionally, Reuters reported under an agreement with Spacecom said it was entitled to a full refund from IAI for the cost of construction of the satellite with interest of Libor plus 4 percent on each payment the company made to IAI. Spacecom will use part of that money to repay the state of Israel $17 million. Additionally, the rest received will be used to pay back a series of bonds of which “bondholders now have cause to demand repayment,” according to Globes. The Globes report mentions Spacecom is due to receive $50 million in compensation from SpaceX, but it can also choose instead to use another Falcon 9 rocket without payment.
Facebook with Eutelsat also had a business deal with Spacecom. Together, they were expected to pay $95 million over five years to lease Ka-band capacity on Amos-6. This would have provided coverage in Sub- Saharan Africa for Facebook’s Internet.org. But with the loss of the satellite, according to Spacecom, the business deal with Facebook will be nullified.
SpaceX is still in the early phases of an investigation on why the explosion occurred. According to an update on their website, the company is currently examining a time period of just 35-55 milliseconds. The NewSpace firm also confirmed the launch pad, Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, incurred damage, but they have not determined the scope. The company noted their other two launch pads (one in California and the other at Kennedy Space Center in Forida) are capable of launching both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. SpaceX said they are confident those two pads can support their return to flight and upcoming launch manifest. Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is currently in the final stages of an operational upgrade while Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center is expected to be operational by November on the company’s current schedule.

Source: Spacecom to claim compensation from IAI, SpaceX for Amos-6 loss - SpaceFlight Insider

 

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Faster than the blink of an eye – that’s how little time there was between the first sign of an anomaly and the loss of the Falcon 9 rocket with the AMOS-6 satellite during a pre-flight test propellant loading operation Sept. 1, 2016. After pouring over the data, SpaceX engineers have narrowed down the likely cause of the explosion to a failure in the upper stage’s helium system. Largely silent in the days following the incident, SpaceX has provided scant information on the progress of the investigation – until now. In a release issued by the company Sept. 23, 2016, SpaceX outlined some of the findings of the Accident Investigation Team (AIT) – comprised of SpaceX, the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and industry experts – and on the condition of the infrastructure at Launch Complex 40 (LC-40).
Although SpaceX was recording approximately 3,000 channels of data during the operation, there was very little notice of the impending failure. According to the release, “The timeline of the event is extremely short – from first signs of an anomaly to loss of data is about 93 milliseconds or less than 1/10th of a second.” Not restricted to just the data recorded during the incident, investigators have also been reviewing video, audio, and imagery evidence. Additionally, investigative teams have recovered and cataloged the majority of the debris from the incident. Early indications point to a failure of the pressurization system in the vehicle’s second stage: “At this stage of the investigation, preliminary review of the data and debris suggests that a large breach in the cryogenic helium system of the second stage liquid oxygen tank took place. All plausible causes are being tracked in an extensive fault tree and carefully investigated. Through the fault tree and data review process, we have exonerated any connection with last year’s CRS-7 mishap.” Though the pad itself sustained significant damage, the area surrounding LC-40 seems to have fared relatively well: “The teams have continued inspections of LC-40 and the surrounding facilities. While substantial areas of the pad systems were affected, the Falcon Support Building adjacent to the pad was unaffected, and per standard procedure was unoccupied at the time of the anomaly. The new liquid oxygen farm – e.g. the tanks and plumbing that hold our super-chilled liquid oxygen – was unaffected and remains in good working order. The RP-1 (kerosene) fuel farm was also largely unaffected. The pad’s control systems are also in relatively good condition.” The company also reported work continues at the LC-39A facility – a former Space Shuttle launch pad – located several miles from LC-40, with a focus on preparing it for operation some time in November. SpaceX entered into a 20-year lease for the historic launch site in April of 2014. Furthermore, SpaceX indicated production at their Hawthorne, California, facilities will resume on systems and components as they are “…exonerated from the investigation.” SpaceX anticipates a return to flight as early as November 2016, pending the investigation’s results.

Source: Falcon 9 explosion narrowed to helium system failure - SpaceFlight Insider

 

[Sarkar]

Your cheap tech doesn't work. So Come here and learn from us how to make a cheap rocket [emoji6]

 

[SarFa]

Your cheap tech doesn't work. So Come here and learn from us how to make a cheap rocket [emoji6]

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