inability of SpaceX, appealed for help from the public and US government agencies on Friday in the investigation of what made a Falcon 9 rocket explode last week during a launch test. No one was hurt in the September 1 blast, which happened as the rocket was being fueled ahead of a standard, pre-launch test known as a static-fire at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who rose to fame as the co-founder of PayPal, added that the blast happened “during a routine filling operation.”
According to video footage of the incident, the SpaceX rocket and an Israeli communications satellite, Amos-6, suddenly burst into a massive fireball amid what appeared to be a succession of blasts.
He said “support and advice” from the US space agency NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Air Force would be “much appreciated.” The California-based company also issued an appeal to the public.
The accident — the second of its kind since SpaceX was founded in 2002 — came just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded after liftoff on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station (ISS). Before that, SpaceX had logged 18 successful launches of the Falcon 9 — including six of 12 planned supply missions to the ISS carried out as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA. |