An uncrewed SpaceX rocket exploded just minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Sunday, marking a major setback for the fast-charging company headed by Internet tycoon Elon Musk.
The accident was the third in less than a year involving US and Russian supply ships bound for the International Space Station and raised new concerns about the flow of food and gear to the astronauts living in orbit.
Skies were sunny and clear for the 10:21am launch of the gleaming white Falcon 9 rocket that was meant to propel the Dragon cargo ship on a routine supply mission, the seventh for SpaceX so far.
However, two minutes and 19 seconds into the flight, contact was lost. Live television images from SpaceX’s Web cast and NASA television showed a huge puff of smoke billowing outward for several seconds and then tiny bits of the rocket falling like confetti against a backdrop of blue sky.
“The vehicle has broken up,” NASA commentator George Diller said.
SpaceX’s live Web cast of the launch went silent as the rocket exploded.
Moments later, a SpaceX commentator said: “There was some kind of anomaly,” adding that the rocket had ignited its nine Merlin engines and reached supersonic speed.
Musk said on Twitter that the Falcon 9 “experienced a problem shortly before first-stage shutdown,” referring to the phase of flight before the cargo ship would have been able to separate from the first stage of the rocket and reach orbit.
The problem appeared to be linked to excessive pressure in the liquid oxygen tank, wrote Musk, a lifelong space enthusiast who also heads Tesla Motors.
The Dragon cargo ship was carrying 1,800kg of gear to the space station, including a large parking space — known as an International Docking Adaptor — designed to make it easier for an array of commercial crew spacecraft to dock at the orbiting lab in the future, a spacesuit and a series of experiments to grow cabbage and study worms in space.
“This is a blow to us. We lost a lot of important research equipment on this flight,” NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration Bill Gerstenmaier said.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said NASA was “disappointed” at the loss, but that the space station has “sufficient supplies for the next several months.”
A Russian Progress supply ship is scheduled to launch on Friday, followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight, Bolden said.
Three men are currently living at the space station and NASA said the crew is stocked with food and supplies for the next four months.
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