After working through a four month stand-down as it sought to understand and address the cause of the September 1st, 2016 explosion that destroyed a Falcon 9 booster and its payload during a pre-launch wet dress rehearsal at Cape Canaveral, SpaceX returned to flight in typically dramatic fashion on Saturday, successfully launching 10 Iridium Next […]
After an exhaustive investigation, one which company founder Elon Musk said is “the toughest puzzle to solve that we’ve ever had to solve,” SpaceX has positively identified the cause of a September 1st pre-flight test that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and its Amos-6 payload. Confirmation came from Musk via a wide-ranging Friday interview on […]
SpaceX is facing a potential roadblock in its path to sending astronauts to the International Space Station as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew program. Yesterday, Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford, a veteran astronaut who flew during the Gemini and Apollo eras, and who happens to be chair of the ISS Oversight Panel, an independent safety committee […]
Late last week, SpaceX released a new update regarding the ‘anomaly’ which destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and its satellite payload during pre-flight testing on September 1st. It is included in its entirety below. As suggested by previous updates, as well as comments both on and off the record from company officials, the overall cause […]
One of the most appealing aspects of writing about space, and NewSpace in particular, is that for the most part, the news and the stories are positive. We are fortunate enough to be living in an era when there are breakthroughs or discoveries being made on almost a weekly basis. It leads to a general […]
With the highly anticipated introduction of its next generation super heavy lift launch system just days away, SpaceX has shed a little more light on what went badly wrong with its current Falcon 9 workhorse during pre-launch preparations for the Amos-6 satellite mission three weeks ago. In an anomaly update posted to its website on […]
Update: SpaceX has provided a statement regarding today’s incident. “SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today’s static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload. Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.” Notably, a close reading of the […]
One year ago yesterday, SpaceX suffered a major launch failure of its Falcon 9 system with the loss of a booster carrying the a Dragon spacecraft to ISS on the CRS-7 resupply mission. The cause of the accident was traced as being most likely due to a faulty second stage support strut which buckled well […]
When the SpaceX Falcon 9 boosting the NASA CRS-7 payload exploded in the air over Cape Canaveral on June 28th, one of the first sympathetic tweets came from United Launch Alliance CEO Tory Bruno. It seemed sincere enough, and a refreshing moment of class in what has otherwise been a bitter battle between ULA and […]
The answer to what caused the June 28th breakup of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket may soon be forthcoming, according to a July 5th twitter post from company founder Elon Musk. “Expect to reach preliminary conclusions regarding last flight by end of week. Will brief key customers & FAA, then post on our website.” It will […]
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