Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

SpaceX Accident ‘Most Difficult and Complex’ in its History

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer | September 12, 2016

SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk is calling last week’s launch pad accident the “most difficult and complex failure” in the company’s 14-year history.

After a week of public silence, Musk said via Twitter that the company is still investigating the accident, its second in just 15 months.

A massive fireball erupted during a prelaunch test Sept. 1 at the company’s main launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon rocket and a satellite were destroyed, and the pad was damaged. Ground crews were fueling the Falcon for a brief test-firing of its engines, two days before its scheduled liftoff.

The blast rocked the launch pad — which had been cleared of workers for the test-firing — and shook buildings several miles away at NASA’s neighboring Kennedy Space Center. The sound of explosions continued for several minutes and black smoke billowed into the morning sky.

Particularly puzzling, according to Musk, is “the quieter bang” heard a few seconds before what he is calling a fireball, not an explosion. He said the bang may have come from the rocket or something else.

“Important to note that this happened during a routine filling operation,” he said in a tweet. “Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source.”

In the immediate aftermath, Musk said the trouble appeared to originate around the upper stage’s oxygen tank. He made no mention of that in his tweets posted early Friday EDT.

When pressed for further information Friday, the California-based SpaceX said there was nothing new to share for now.

“We are continuing to thoroughly investigate last week’s loss of Falcon 9, with support from the FAA, NASA, the U.S. Air Force and industry experts,” SpaceX spokesman Dex Torricke-Barton said in an email Friday. “Our priority is to safely and reliably return to flight.”

The core investigation team consists of about 20 people, more than half of them representing federal agencies and industry. SpaceX’s vice president for flight reliability, Hans Koenigsmann, is heading it up.

SpaceX is urging anyone with audio, photos or video of the accident to send the material to [email protected] for use in the investigation.

“Still working on the Falcon fireball investigation,” Musk said on Twitter. “Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years.”

A co-founder of PayPal, the 45-year-old Musk also runs Tesla Motors, the electric car maker, and is chairman of SolarCity, a solar energy company.

His private space company had been on a roll, with eight launches already accomplished in 2016, two of them space station supply runs for NASA. The company had also, last December, pulled off the world’s first landing of a booster rocket used in an orbital mission, and had been repeating the success. It was planning to use a recycled rocket for an upcoming satellite launch.

SpaceX was attempting to catch up on launches following an accident in June 2015 that grounded the Falcon 9 rocket for six months. That accident, two minutes into a delivery mission for the International Space Station, was blamed on a support strut that broke loose inside the upper stage. The issue was said to have been fixed.

Now, with more than 70 launches in the wings worth $10 billion, SpaceX said it can rely on its two other launch pads if necessary, one at Kennedy and one in California, once the Falcon rocket is ready to fly again. Both pads are undergoing construction and should be ready soon.

Facebook had planned to use the lost satellite — an Israeli-made communications satellite — to expand internet service in Africa.

For now, NASA isn’t saying much publicly about the SpaceX mishap. NASA is counting on SpaceX and Boeing to start ferrying astronauts to the space station; even before SpaceX’s Sept. 1 accident, next year’s targeted launch date had been in jeopardy.

“Clearly this incident is a setback for SpaceX,” said Dale Skran, the National Space Society’s executive vice president. At the same time, he noted in a statement earlier this week that NASA was wise to hire multiple companies for cargo and crew transport, not only from a competitive standpoint but for backup.

At the time of the explosion, NASA’s Osiris-Rex spacecraft was just a mile away, awaiting its own launch to chase down an asteroid. Both NASA and rocket maker United Launch Alliance conducted extra checks to make certain nothing was damaged by the blast before Thursday’s successful liftoff.

NASA launch director Tim Dunn was sympathetic and earlier in the week praised SpaceX’s resilience. “It’s nothing that any of us ever want to see,” he said. “However, it is part of our business that has very harsh consequences.”

You Might Also Like


Filed Under: Aerospace + defense

 

LEARNING CENTER

Design World Learning Center
“dw
EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND STAY CONNECTED
Get the latest info on technologies, tools and strategies for Design Engineering Professionals.
Motor University

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Widening the scope for machine tool designers with FORTiS™ enclosed encoder
  • Sustainability, Innovation and Safety, Central to Our Approach
  • Why off-highway is the sweet spot for AC electrification technology
  • Looking to 2025: Past Success Guides Future Achievements
  • North American Companies Seek Stronger Ties with Italian OEMs
  • Adapt and Evolve
View More >>
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Control Engineering
  • Consulting-Specifying Engineer
  • Plant Engineering
  • Engineering White Papers
  • Leap Awards

Copyright © 2025 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • ELECTRONICS • ELECTRICAL
    • Fastening • joining
    • FLUID POWER
    • LINEAR MOTION
    • MOTION CONTROL
    • SENSORS
    • TEST & MEASUREMENT
    • Factory automation
    • Warehouse automation
    • DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
  • Learn
    • Tech Toolboxes
    • Learning center
    • eBooks • Tech Tips
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars • general engineering
    • Webinars • Automated warehousing
    • Voices
  • LEAP Awards
  • 2025 Leadership
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guides
  • Resources
    • Subscribe
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Educational Assets
    • Engineering diversity
    • Trends
  • Supplier Listings
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. We share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.