The rocket was being fuelled ahead of a standard, pre-launch test.
The rocket was being fuelled ahead of a standard, pre-launch test.
Miami
: SpaceX appealed for help from the public and US government agencies on Friday in the investigation of what made a Falcon 9 rocket explode last week during a launch test. No one was hurt in the September 1 blast, which happened as the rocket was being fuelled ahead of a standard, pre-launch test known as a static-fire at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
-"Still working on the Falcon fireball investigation,-" SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter. -"Turning out to be the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years.-" Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who rose to fame as the co-founder of PayPal, added that the blast happened -"during a routine filling operation.-"
-"Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source.-" According to video footage of the incident, the SpaceX rocket and an Israeli communications satellite, Amos-6, suddenly burst into a massive fireball amid what appeared to be a succession of blasts.
-"Particularly trying to understand the quieter bang sound a few seconds before the fireball goes off,-" Musk wrote. -"May come from rocket or something else.-"
He said -"support and advice-" from the US space agency NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the US Air Force would be -"much appreciated.-"
The California-based company also issued an appeal to the public. -"Please email any recordings of the event to report@spacex.com.-"
The accident -- the second of its kind since SpaceX was founded in 2002 -- came just over a year after a Falcon 9 rocket exploded after liftoff on June 28, 2015, destroying a Dragon cargo capsule bound for the International Space Station (ISS).
Before that, SpaceX had logged 18 successful launches of the Falcon 9 -- including six of 12 planned supply missions to the ISS carried out as part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA.
