Florida - June 28, 2 minutes and 19 seconds after it was launched, the American Falcon-9 rocket disintegrated in the air. The rocket, carrying a cargo ship to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS), exploded, and debris were found in the Atlantic Ocean.
No crew has been harmed in the explosion. Important supplies, such as food, water, and other equipment, have been lost in the incident. NASA said that the astronauts still have supplies to last until October.
Japanese and Russian freights are also expected to visit, to help add to the supplies at hand.
In a tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, "There was an overpressure event in the upper-stage liquid oxygen tank." This may have caused the problem. Musk later added, "Will have more to say following a thorough fault tree analysis."
An investigation will be conducted following the incident. No American Falcon-9 launch will take place anytime soon.
Falcon-9 had two tons of supplies loaded on top of it. The supplies are in NASA' s SpaceX Dragon Freighter, carried on top of the rocket.
"We are operating systems at the edge of their ability. This is a very demanding environment that requires tremendous precision and tremendous amounts of engineering skill - for hardware to perform exactly as it should." NASA associate administrator for human spaceflight said in a BBC report.
BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos said in his analysis, "It was already operating its supplies at less than ideal levels. This was a consequence of recent launch failures on two other freighter systems - the US Cygnus ship and the Russian Progress craft."
The Sunday launch followed 18 successful flights before it. As of this writing, SpaceX has not yet released a timeline of when launches will resume. It has not announced when and how the missing supplies will be replaced and delivered.
The investigation is also being conducted, led by SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell.
Below is the video of the explosion. Click to watch it.
