She said Falcon 9 rocket launches would be suspended until the US Federal Aviation Administration receives and approves the report from SpaceX, which is in charge of the investigation but still under the FAA’s oversight. SpaceX gave initial statements, which stated that all the engines were firing appropriately and the initial take off of Falcon 9 was fine but the cause of what happened remains unknown.
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The incident marks the third loss of an ISS resupply vehicle in about eight months.
Two-and-a-half minutes into flight, as the Falcon 9 reached about 27 miles above the earth, racing at 2,900 miles per hour, the rocket exploded in a fiery ball. “We lost a lot of research equipment on this flight”, Nasa associate administrator Bill Gerstenmaier told a news conference.
Redfern says that even with the setbacks from three rocket failures, the crews has enough supplies to support them for several more months. The video of the launch, complete with explosion, is still available on the official SpaceX YouTube page, and preliminary data on the “anomaly” has been released.
The SpaceX rocket was en route to The worldwide Space Station (ISS) and was carrying a cargo ship on Sunday morning.
In a partnership between NASA and Microsoft, a set of HoloLens devices were to be sent to the worldwide Space Station to assist with communications and training utilizing new software known as Sidekick.
SpaceX was flying its seventh ISS resupply mission and Sunday’s incident was the first time the company’s Falcon 9 rocket experienced a launch failure, the Journal noted. “The commercial cargo program was designed to accommodate loss of cargo vehicles”, he said, according to The Washington Post. The press release also added that another pair was to be included in SpaceX’s resupply mission that had been scheduled for June 28.
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The company had seven more launches planned this year including one in early August for launching the NOAA’s Jason-3 satellite to space, the satellite will aid the agency in tracking ocean levels and predict intensity of a cyclone. Orbital ATK, NASA’s other supply line, also witnessed a launch accident in October.
