Last month, Space X’s CRS-7 exploded after take-off. I was 4 miles from the launchpad that morning, but there wasn’t much news that day as to what had failed on the Falcon 9 rocket. Today, there’s more news. Here’s Loren Grush’s at The Verge:
The SpaceX explosion on June 28th was caused by a failed strut in the rocket’s upper stage liquid oxygen tank, SpaceX chief executive officer Elon Musk said today. The strut was one of several hundred used to hold together the helium pressure vessels in the tank, which help to pressurize and maintain the buoyancy of the rocket. According to Musk, the strut was designed to handle 10,000 pounds of force, but failed at just 2,000 pounds of force.
“This is the best of what we know thus far,” said Musk during a press conference. “We emphasize this is an initial assessment, and further investigation may reveal more over time.”
Musk said that the company has since tested thousands of struts from the supplier, with “several” failing. SpaceX will no longer be using these components, and will beging to individually test struts for future rockets.
SpaceX’s flight was unmanned, but the California company is one of the groups on track to fly US astronauts upon private vehicles. That said, NASA commented last month that vehicle loss at this stage of development was to be expected. Commercial crew test flights are on track for 2017. The next Falcon 9 launch is now slated for September.
Update: SpaceX has published a blog post with additional details.