Uncrewed SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Explodes After Launch

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded about 2 minutes and 20 seconds after launch this morning. No people were onboard; it was an uncrewed resupply mission. The cause is not yet known.

Here is video of the event (launch is at 51:48, the explosion at 54:05):

SpaceX has not released details yet; a press conference is scheduled for no earlier than 12:30 EDT. I’ll update here when I know more.

Looking at the video, the explosion doesn’t release flames, but instead you see a vaporous white cloud blow away. My guess — and I’m no expert — is that this was a pressurized cryogenic tank failure of some kind. But again, we’ll know more very soon.

Update 1, June 28, 2015 at 16:10 UTC: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk just tweeted that it looks like a tank overpressurization event, as I had guessed:

We should know more soon.

The Dragon capsule on top of the rocket had food and supplies for the astronauts on ISS. The three astronauts on board have enough food to last for many months, so they should be OK for now. Also on board the Dragon was an adapter ring for the ISS that would allow future commercial vehicles easier docking access.

This is the first SpaceX failure since they began resupply missions to ISS, but the third overall failure to ISS, including the loss of a Progress vehicle in April and the Orbital Antares rocket in October of 2014. This comes at a time when the Senate has been trying (wrongly, in my opinion) to cut back on funding for SpaceX and other commercial companies, so I expect we'll see statements from those Senators on this event shortly. Read them with a grain of salt. Again, we'll know more shortly. Stay tuned.

from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1BZ6DJb
via IFTTT