The SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on its sixth resupply mission to International Space Station, exploded over florida seconds into lift o...
The SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on its sixth resupply mission to International Space Station, exploded over florida seconds into lift off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on sunday.
Following a nominal liftoff, SpaceX says the Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Preliminary analysis suggested the vehicle experienced an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank approximately 139 seconds into flight.
Telemetry indicates first stage flight was nominal and that Dragon remained healthy for some period of time following separation.
The Dragon spacecraft onboard was carrying food, water, and equipments weighing around 2 ton to ISS.
The loss is a big blow to SpaceX, as the Falcon 9 was recently certified by U.S Air Force to carry national security payloads currently exclusively orbited by ULA launch vehicles. Rockets used for lofting national security payloads require higher reliability as it may endanger U.S. national interests.
The mission failure will not affect the operation of ISS, as a Russian Progress vehicle is ready for launch on July 3, followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight. In April, a Progress spacecraft on a resupply mission to ISS failed to dock and was destroyed on re-entry to atmosphere.
The incident marks the third major space accident to private U.S. space company's, including the crash of the first prototype of Space Ship Two and loss of Orbital ATK Antares rocket last year.
Orbital ATK, is moving ahead with plans for its next launch later this year using its Cygnus spacecraft onboard a ULA Atlas V rocket, rather than the Antares rocket.
