Sooner Boomer
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2011
- Messages
- 5,901
- Reaction score
- 4,884
from space.com
A SpaceX rocket engine exploded Sunday (Nov. 5) at the company's test facility in McGregor, Texas, according to The Washington Post.
The explosion occurred during a "qualification test" of a Merlin engine, the type that powers SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the Post reported. (The two-stage Falcon 9 has nine Merlins in its first stage and one in its upper stage.)
SpaceX has suspended engine testing while it investigates what caused the incident, which didn't injure anyone, the Post added. In a statement provided to the Post, SpaceX representatives said they didn't expect the explosion to affect the company's launch schedule.
That schedule has been pretty packed this year. SpaceX has already launched 16 missions, all of them successful, in 2017 twice as many as its previous high in a calendar year. And all but three of these missions also involved landings of the Falcon 9 first stage, for eventual refurbishment and reuse. (During the other three launches, no landing was attempted.)
The reuse of rockets and spacecraft will slash the cost of spaceflight, leading to greater exploration opportunities, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.
SpaceX has experience investigating accidents. In September 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad during a routine preflight test, destroying the rocket and its payload, the Amos-6 communications satellite. The company traced the problem to a design flaw in one of the helium canisters inside the rocket's second-stage liquid-oxygen tank.
In June 2015, a Falcon 9 broke apart less than 3 minutes after liftoff, scuttling an uncrewed cargo run to the International Space Station by SpaceX's Dragon capsule. That accident was caused by the failure of a single steel strut inside the second stage, the company determined.
Nobody was hurt in either of these incidents.
SpaceX has several more Falcon 9 missions on tap for 2017, and the company also aims to launch its huge new Falcon Heavy booster for the first time before the end of the year.
A SpaceX rocket engine exploded Sunday (Nov. 5) at the company's test facility in McGregor, Texas, according to The Washington Post.
The explosion occurred during a "qualification test" of a Merlin engine, the type that powers SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket, the Post reported. (The two-stage Falcon 9 has nine Merlins in its first stage and one in its upper stage.)
SpaceX has suspended engine testing while it investigates what caused the incident, which didn't injure anyone, the Post added. In a statement provided to the Post, SpaceX representatives said they didn't expect the explosion to affect the company's launch schedule.
That schedule has been pretty packed this year. SpaceX has already launched 16 missions, all of them successful, in 2017 twice as many as its previous high in a calendar year. And all but three of these missions also involved landings of the Falcon 9 first stage, for eventual refurbishment and reuse. (During the other three launches, no landing was attempted.)
The reuse of rockets and spacecraft will slash the cost of spaceflight, leading to greater exploration opportunities, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said.
SpaceX has experience investigating accidents. In September 2016, a Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad during a routine preflight test, destroying the rocket and its payload, the Amos-6 communications satellite. The company traced the problem to a design flaw in one of the helium canisters inside the rocket's second-stage liquid-oxygen tank.
In June 2015, a Falcon 9 broke apart less than 3 minutes after liftoff, scuttling an uncrewed cargo run to the International Space Station by SpaceX's Dragon capsule. That accident was caused by the failure of a single steel strut inside the second stage, the company determined.
Nobody was hurt in either of these incidents.
SpaceX has several more Falcon 9 missions on tap for 2017, and the company also aims to launch its huge new Falcon Heavy booster for the first time before the end of the year.