Experimental SpaceX Rocket Explodes 22 Aug 2014

Post date: Aug 23, 2014 1:40:8 AM

Friday

An unmanned Experimental SpaceX rocket (F9R Dev) explodes after receiving an automatic self-destructed shortly after launch on a test flight "anomaly" was detected at the company's McGregor Central Texas development site.

A SpaceX statement said nobody was injured in the Friday afternoon explosion at its test site in McGregor, Texas, 23 miles southeast of Waco. The rocket never veered off course and the vehicle remained within its designated flight area throughout and a representative of the Federal Aviation Administration was present.

The test flight involved a three-engine version of its reusable Falcon 9R Development rocket was a testbed using a modified first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. The F9R Dev is a successor to the company's Grasshopper, a prototype intended to pave the way for fully reusable rockets that would fly themselves back homeward to land back on Earth for subsequent reuse.

The test “was particularly complex, pushing the limits of the vehicle further than any previous test."

SpaceX was testing the ability of its F9R Dev craft to take off, maneuver and land vertically using rocket power.

SpaceX will give further details on the nature of the "anomaly," after a full review of the flight record to learn more about the rocket's performance before its next test flight.

Elon Musk said: “Rockets are tricky.”

SpaceX entry and landing team leader Lars Blackmore tweeted that the detonation was “not necessarily a setback,” adding that engineers “still got very useful data you don’t get unless pushing the envelope.”

Data gained from the flight may be nearly as valuable as if it had gone off without a hitch, SpaceX's goal of the test wasn't to destroy the vehicle, but they were fully aware that this could be an outcome.

SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell in her TED talk in June 2013 said

"So we're 5-for-5 testing on this Grasshopper. But that means we're not pushing hard enough. We've got to tunnel one of those vehicle into the ground by trying something really hard. We haven't done that yet. So now our challenge to our test team is you've got to push hard enough that we're going to see something happen. A spectacular video." (YouTube quote 14.00)

SpaceX Launch 12 for AsiaSat

The Launch of the Next Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral is now Wednesday 27th Aug from Launch Complex 40.

SpaceX said the mission was pushed back a day after Friday's failed flight of a test rocket in Texas.

Company spokesman John Taylor said that while the three-engine, single-stage "F9R" development vehicle and its McGregor, Texas, launch site are very different from the Falcon 9 being readied for launch from Cape Canaveral, "we are taking some additional time to review the circumstances that caused the test vehicle to auto terminate to confirm that there is not a risk to orbital flight."

"SpaceX prizes mission assurance above all," he said in a statement. "This action is consistent with that philosophy."