The Falcon 9 rocket successfully took off, and flew enough time to reach supersonic speed, but soon exploded minutes later (late Sunday morning).
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, told reporters: “There was an over-pressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. That’s all we can say with confidence right now. We will have more to say following a thorough analysis.”
The rocket was unmanned, and was carrying supplies of NASA meant to reach the international space station. NASA outsourced the resupply mission in 2011 to SpaceX.
Charles Bolden, a NASA Administrator noted: “We are disappointed in the loss of the latest SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months. We will work closely with SpaceX to understand what happened, fix the problem and return to flight. The commercial cargo program was designed to accommodate loss of cargo vehicles.”
Elon Musk, Founder of SpaceX.
The SpaceX team has until July 24th to resupply the space station. At that time, the station will reach “reserve level.” NASA estimates that the station will run out of food reserves on September 5th, so time is of the essence here.
