The fallout following this week’s fiery destruction of a SpaceX rocket during a test at Cape Canaveral include delayed satellite launches for customers around the world that had hired the company to send equipment into orbit. It was the second total loss of a rocket since June of last year for SpaceX, which had one explode at 150,000 feet due to a mechanical failure. A Reuters report following Thursday’s accident says SpaceX is already looking at the possibility of continuing its operations on another nearby launchpad while the one it used on Thursday, Launch Complex 40, undergoes repairs. But for the time being, SpaceX operations have been suspended while the FAA investigates the cause of Thursday morning’s explosion, which burned up the Falcon 9 rocket and the launchpad, Reuters reported. Also destroyed during the test was the rocket’s cargo, a communications satellite that was to be launched Saturday under contract with an Israeli company and used by Facebook to provide internet services in Africa, according to news reports.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk maintained that the burnup of the rocket was “not an explosion,” as reported in the Los Angeles Times. Dramatic video of the Falcon 9 rocket in the tower at NASA’s Pad 40 shows a giant fireball and thick black smoke bursting from the assembly. Flames fueled by propellant quickly consume and break apart the tower amid the sounds of several explosions. Minutes later, when it appears the flames are dissipating, another fireball erupts, followed by the sounds of more explosions, leaving the partial skeleton of the pad tower. A NASA official told Reuters the alternate launch site for SpaceX is a viable one and was already going to be used for future tests. The agency appears to be taking the setbacks in stride, tweeting that the accident “reminds us that spaceflight is challenging. Our partners learn from each success & setback.”
