{"id":19146,"date":"2016-12-07T19:17:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-07T11:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-targets-early-january-for-falcon-9-rockets-return-to-flight-after-explosion\/"},"modified":"2016-12-07T19:17:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-07T11:17:52","slug":"spacex-targets-early-january-for-falcon-9-rockets-return-to-flight-after-explosion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-targets-early-january-for-falcon-9-rockets-return-to-flight-after-explosion\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX targets early January for Falcon 9 rocket\u2019s return to flight after explosion"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_295072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-295072\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-295072\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161207-spacex-630x508.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX Falcon rocket\" width=\"630\" height=\"508\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161207-spacex-630x508.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/161207-spacex.jpg 718w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-295072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket is expected to occur in early January. (SpaceX Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>SpaceX says it expects to finish its investigation of September\u2019s fiery loss of a Falcon 9 rocket and its payload in time for a return to flight in early January.<\/p>\n<p>That launch is expected to send 10 Iridium Next communication satellites into orbit from California\u2019s Vandenberg Air Force Base.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past few weeks, officials at SpaceX and Iridium had been hinting that the launch might occur in mid-December, but today\u2019s update extends the postponement a few more weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis allows for additional time to close out vehicle preparations and complete extended testing to help ensure the highest possible level of mission assurance prior to launch,\u201d SpaceX said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=806524844703621120&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2016%2Fspacex-targets-early-january-falcon-9-rocket%2F&amp;sessionId=3933895aaabed573591c54c53a58c79d1410fd6a&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"806524844703621120\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782803780871596977=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We support @SpaceX announcement today to extend the 1st #IridiumNEXT launch date into early January. https:\/\/t.co\/xpj7RnWoGO<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Iridium (@IridiumComm) December 7, 2016<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A month ago, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said the Sept. 1 launch pad explosion was traced to the way&nbsp;liquid helium was loaded into pressure vessels located within the Falcon 9\u2019s tank of liquid oxygen propellant. The procedure chilled the oxygen so much that it turned into a solid, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Musk suggested that the solid oxygen could have reacted explosively with the carbon composite tank.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting blast destroyed the rocket as well as its payload, which included an Israeli-built satellite known as Amos-6 that was to have&nbsp;facilitated Facebook\u2019s plans to provide internet access in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Although SpaceX is in charge of the investigation into the anomaly, the Federal Aviation Administration has to sign off on its findings and give its approval for the Iridium launch. Today\u2019s update signals that SpaceX has settled on the root cause, that it has developed a way to avoid facing similar issues in the future, and that the approval&nbsp;process is on track for January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next launch of a Falcon 9 rocket is expected to occur in early January. (SpaceX Photo) SpaceX says it expects to finish its investigation of September\u2019s fiery loss of a Falcon 9 rocket and its payload in time for a return to flight in early January. That launch is expected to send 10 Iridium [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,530,316],"class_list":["post-19146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-iridium","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}