SpaceX's Falcon 9 Resumes Flight Next Week After September 1 Accident
Last September 1, 2016 one of the SpaceX rockets, Falcon 9, was being fueled for a routine pre-launch test in Florida burst in flames on a launch pad carrying Facebook's multi-million internet satellite.
In an article published in the Mail Online, the rocket explosion incident in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida destroyed the $62 million rocket and the $200 million internet satellite.
Investigators concluded in their reports that a canister of helium outside the rocket's upper-stage oxygen tank had exploded.
While oxygen is very flammable and the accumulation of oxygen in a void or buckle most likely led to the explosion, SpaceX plans to renovate its refueling procedures so that the super cold-liquid oxygen will not build up between the helium tank's liner and its outer covering.
In a statement made by SpaceX in Daily Mail, "In the long-term, Space X will implement design changes to the helium canisters to prevent buckles altogether."
Space X is owned and operated by Tesla Motors, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, has a backlog of more than 70 missions with NASA and to its commercial customers amounting to $10 billion.
Falcon 9 is a rocket designed by SpaceX that caters a number of missions of NASA in their space programs. SpaceX's Falcon 9 is the first rocket completely developed in the 21st century, manufactured for a reliable transport of satellites and the Dragon spacecraft into orbit. With Falcon 9, SpaceX makes multiple flights to the space station, both delivering and returning cargo to NASA.
Because of the September 1 accident of the Falcon 9, the second for SpaceX in 29 flights, the company has already taking an action to prevent additional disaster in the future. They are now using a warmer temperature helium and a slow fueling operation to prevent bursting. However, the company still has no words yet when the new helium canisters would be ready to fly.
Dianne Hockenberry, SpaceX spokesperson, said in a statement, "Iridium is pleased with SpaceX's announcement on the results of the September 1 anomaly was identified by their accident investigation team and their plans to target a return to flight."
But Inmarsat, a British satellite company, announced that they will switch to using Arianespace from rival SpaceX to launch their new satellite to provide broadband connectivity to air passengers because of setbacks to SpaceX's launched schedule.
Inmarsat will launch the S-band satellite in mid-2017 but SpaceX forced to delay December rocket launches until January while investigation continues from the September 1 accident.