Tag: SpaceX
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SpaceX Falcon 9 failure investigation focuses on COPV struts
SpaceX CEO and Chief Designer Elon Musk has updated the status of the investigation into the failure of the Falcon 9 rocket during its ill-fated CRS-7 Dragon mission. The preliminary findings point to a support strut in the Second Stage LOX tank breaking, releasing a helium pressurization bottle (Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel) that began the…
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Support strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure
Updated at 9 p.m. EDT with SpaceX statement A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday. While…
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SpaceX’s Elon Musk traces Falcon 9 rocket failure to busted strut
The unexpected breakdown of a tank strut apparently caused last month’s failure of a Falcon 9 rocket launch to the International Space Station, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reported Monday. Elon Musk in Seattle last year. The June 28 loss of the Falcon, plus SpaceX’s robotic Dragon capsule and more than two and a half tons of…
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Stephen Hawking searches for aliens, and Elon Musk explains the SpaceX explosion
Alan Boyle We’ve been thrilled to have longtime space and science reporter Alan Boyle covering two big stories for GeekWire today: Stephen Hawking’s announcement of a $100 million initiative to find alien life, and Elon Musk’s news conference about a preliminary finding in the recent SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion. Before leaving the GeekWire offices this afternoon, Alan sat down and talked with us…
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SpaceX delays next Crew Dragon abort test
SpaceX’s hangar at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A. Credit: SpaceX The next test of a critical safety system on SpaceX’s human-rated Dragon spaceship will be delayed, likely until at least late next year, as the company adjusts the development schedule for the new commercial crew capsule designed to take astronauts to the International Space…
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Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart approximately 139 seconds after launch June 28. Credit: Walter Scriptunas II/Scriptunas Images Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened…
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SpaceX working toward Falcon 9 diagnosis ahead of treatment
SpaceX is deep into an internal mishap investigation following the loss during First Stage flight of a Falcon 9 rocket with the CRS-7 Dragon. While the Second Stage is considered to be the main culprit for the failure, investigators are currently gathering data to reconstruct the final moments of Falcon 9’s flight as recovery teams attempt to retrieve the rocket’s remains to further aid…
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Air Force stays the course with SpaceX rocket certification
File photo of a previous Falcon 9 launch. Credit: SpaceX Sunday’s Falcon 9 rocket failure may have blemished SpaceX’s success record, but the mishap will not keep the entrepreneurial space company from competing for U.S. military launch contracts with rival United Launch Alliance, according to an Air Force general. SpaceX won certification from the Air…
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Data, not debris, takes spotlight in Falcon 9 failure investigation
Although recovery teams in the Atlantic Ocean have retrieved wreckage from Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch failure, the best clues to the cause of the crash lie in raw data transmitted from the rocket as it disintegrated, SpaceX officials said Wednesday. Officials with the California-based rocket company said there is no breakthrough in the investigation into…
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Photos: Falcon 9 blasts off, then breaks apart in mid-air
Cameras positioned around SpaceX’s launch facility at Cape Canaveral captured stunning photos of the Falcon 9 rocket’s picturesque blastoff into a sun-splashed sky Sunday morning, but the photogenic launch went awry minutes later. Photo credit: Walter Scriptunas II / Scriptunas Images Email the author. Follow Stephen Clark on…