A massive explosion rocked a SpaceX launch pad Thursday during a routine rocket test for a planned weekend launch.
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The goal of the static test fire, according to a NASA Space Flight story published shortly after the explosion, “is to provide a dress rehearsal for the launch team, culminating in a three-second firing of all nine of the first state Merlin 1D engines to validate the health of the rocket”.
The company had been leasing the Cape Canaveral launch pad from the Air Force, and had been increasing its number of launches to counter a backlog created by a separate accident in June 2015.
The blast shook buildings several miles away. A cloud of dark smoke filled the overcast sky.
Additional details were not immediately available, but sirens could be heard in the aftermath.
SpaceX had successfully launched a Falcon 9 last month, sending a Japanese communications satellite into orbit and then landing the rocket on a floating drone ship.
The initial blast sent next-door NASA employees rushing frantically outside to see what happened.
SpaceX says “an anomaly on the pad” caused the explosion.
The company has three space vehicles, the Falcon 9 being one of them, and employs more than 4,000 people.
SpaceX has used its Falcon-9 rocket to run supplies to the International Space Station. NASA remains confident in its commercial partners, including SpaceX, she said.
There’s been an explosion on SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral launch complex. It’s also a setback for NASA, which has been counting on the private company to keep the International Space Station stocked with supplies and, ultimately, astronauts.
The rocket’s upper stage exploded at 9:07 a.m. EDT (1307 GMT), setting off a dramatic, fiery cascade captured on video by U.S. Launch Report, a nonprofit that helps disabled veterans experience launches and other aspects of American space history.
The California-based company confirmed the explosion on Twitter about 9:45 a.m.
SpaceX’s eight successful launches this year were its most in any calendar year, and it hopes to complete as many more before the end of the year, possibly including the debut of a heavy-lift Falcon rocket.
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But SpaceX also claims some of the most exciting moments in the history of space exploration. The company is also redoing a former shuttle pad at Kennedy for future manned flights for NASA.
