It was a fine morning of September 1 when experts were about to conduct their regular routine of having a pre-flight ignition test. Moments before it can even get started, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has reportedly exploded. With just a snap, it was believed that the 277 foot-tall space vehicle along with its $200 million satellite cargo had disappeared into a ball of flame.
According to The Wall Street Journal, investigators of the said incident firmly believes that it's mainly caused by operational issues that are basically associated to fueling procedures and not a manufacturing defect; contrary to the previous claims that were seemingly caused by a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. rocket to explode during ground tests last month.
Reports have it that SpaceX has been consistently silent about the issue when it comes to the details of what went wrong last month during their Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, which makes a lot of sense according to scientists. However, Wired has recently reported that the incident is already SpaceX's second launch failure in the last 15 months that makes the explosion a more tangible measure of the company's future rather than it's controversial Mars settlement plans, which is also a hypothetical move as considered by some.
Through the collaborative efforts of SpaceX, the FAA, NASA, the US Air Force and some of the industry's well-known experts, the investigation is made possible. As these groups try to gather facts from the said explosion, the company has revealed that they are currently looking at over 3,000 channels of engineering data, along with the video, audio and imagery.
It was also reported that the company was allegedly worried about the potential sabotage by rival space firms and that they are also on the move of reviewing the images of strange shadows that has been found on a building next to the launch site.
As of the present time, SpaceX has a record of losing two of its 29 launches. Until the investigations leads them to where they are heading to, no one can ever tell if those failures follow a certain kind of pattern.
