SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed new information regarding the failure of the Falcon 9 rocket that occurred 139 seconds into flight on June 28. The launch, which was expected to deliver cargo and science to the ISS, was abruptly halted following the disintegration of the SpaceX rocket just seconds before the end of first stage flight.
Initial findings from the SpaceX investigation indicates to a failure of the struts used to support helium bottles in the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. Through acoustic triangulation and subsequent strut material testing, it is believed a support strut holding a helium bottle down within the LOX tank snapped, causing the bottle to shoot to the top of the tank, resulting in tank rupture and an abrupt end to the mission.
The struts are rated to withstand forces of up to 10,000 lbs, but Musk says that they failed at just 2000 lbs during the launch. After testing thousands of struts from their supplier, who Musk wishes to remain unknown, just a few struts failed at 2000 lbs of force. However, since each rocket uses hundreds of these struts, many would argue it was only a matter of time before a failure was due to occur.
Initial findings from the SpaceX investigation indicates to a failure of the struts used to support helium bottles in the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. Through acoustic triangulation and subsequent strut material testing, it is believed a support strut holding a helium bottle down within the LOX tank snapped, causing the bottle to shoot to the top of the tank, resulting in tank rupture and an abrupt end to the mission.
The struts are rated to withstand forces of up to 10,000 lbs, but Musk says that they failed at just 2000 lbs during the launch. After testing thousands of struts from their supplier, who Musk wishes to remain unknown, just a few struts failed at 2000 lbs of force. However, since each rocket uses hundreds of these struts, many would argue it was only a matter of time before a failure was due to occur.
Due to the severity of the overpressure event, the Dragon spacecraft became detached from the launch vehicle. Musk said that had the Dragon spacecraft released its parachutes, the spacecraft and the cargo within it would have been saved. SpaceX now plan to add a new redundancy to the software that operates the deployment of the parachutes, meaning that if a situation like this would ever to occur again, the parachutes would deploy and a loss of the spacecraft avoided.
Looking to the future, SpaceX hope to return to flight this fall, specifically no earlier than late September.
The nature of the first flight is unknown. NASA may push for the launch of CRS-8 to ensure the ISS has enough cargo to support the crew onboard the orbital station. However, previously flight scheduled indicated Jason-3 was next in line, so return to flight may be from Vandenberg Air Force Base with the launch of a new NASA Earth science satellite. Alternatively, SpaceX may consider a commercial payload launch, such as SES-9.
According to the official statement released by SpaceX on their website, the company hopes to fulfil this year’s manifest by the end of the year, which would be a remarkable turnaround. If this were to come true, we could expect a launch every few weeks in order to launch the remaining 4-6 payloads expected to be flown this year.
Looking to the future, SpaceX hope to return to flight this fall, specifically no earlier than late September.
The nature of the first flight is unknown. NASA may push for the launch of CRS-8 to ensure the ISS has enough cargo to support the crew onboard the orbital station. However, previously flight scheduled indicated Jason-3 was next in line, so return to flight may be from Vandenberg Air Force Base with the launch of a new NASA Earth science satellite. Alternatively, SpaceX may consider a commercial payload launch, such as SES-9.
According to the official statement released by SpaceX on their website, the company hopes to fulfil this year’s manifest by the end of the year, which would be a remarkable turnaround. If this were to come true, we could expect a launch every few weeks in order to launch the remaining 4-6 payloads expected to be flown this year.