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 The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) Falcon 9 rocket had flown 18 times
previously since its 2010 debut, all successfully. Those missions
included six station cargo runs for NASA under a 15-flight contract
worth more than $2 billion.
However SpaceX, a company founded and owned by technology
entrepreneur Elon Musk, has twice previously tried and failed in an
experiment to land the rocket on a platform in the ocean.
Sunday's accident soon after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station was the second successive botched mission to resupply the
space station. A Russian Progress cargo ship failed to reach the
outpost in April following a problem with its Soyuz launcher.
The cause of Sunday’s explosion was not yet clear, officials said.
"This was a blow to us. We lost a lot of research equipment on this
flight," NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier told a news
conference.
The explosion also marks a setback for SpaceX, or Space Exploration
Technologies. The company was poised to compete for the first time
against United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin
Corp <LMT.N> and Boeing Co <BA.N> and the current sole launch
provider for military and spy satellite launches, to launch a GPS
III satellite.
An investigation into the explosion will ground the Falcon 9 rockets
for "a number of months or so" but less than a year, SpaceX
President Gwynne Shotwell told the news conference.
A preliminary analysis indicated a problem with the rocket's
upper-stage engine, Musk said on Twitter.
The company had hoped to use the rocket’s discarded 14-story-tall
first stage in an innovative landing test, part of its overall goal
to refurbish and refly its rockets, slashing launch costs.
A platform had been stationed in the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of
serving as a landing pad. Instead, the rocket broke apart in
mid-air. Recovery teams were dispatched to attempt to collect debris
for analysis.
Two previous experiments, in January and April, came close to
succeeding but technical problems caused the rockets to crash into
the platform.
SPACE STATION SUPPLIES
The International Space Station crew - two Russian cosmonauts and an
American astronaut - has about four months of food and supplies on
board, so the loss of the cargo shipment does not pose an immediate
problem for them, said NASA station program manager Mike Suffredini.
The station is expected to be returned to its full, six-member crew
in July. But if food or water supplies dwindled to 45 days, some of
the crew could return home via the Russian Soyuz capsules that are
parked at the outpost.
Sunday’s accident leaves the United States temporarily dependent on
Russia and Japan to resupply the station. NASA’s second cargo
transporter, run by Orbital ATK <OA.N>, remains grounded following a
launch accident in October.
Russia hopes to return its troubled Soyuz rocket and Progress cargo
ship to flight on Friday. Japan is slated to fly its HTV capsule to
the station in August.
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Sunday’s problem started about two minutes and 19 seconds after
liftoff when SpaceX lost contact with the Falcon, NASA launch
commentator George Diller said. The accident occurred just before
the rocket was to discard its first stage two minutes and 39 seconds
after liftoff.
Despite the explosion, one SpaceX customer voiced support in the
company and the Falcon 9.
"One inevitable failure for such a young system should not in any
way shake anyone's faith in the rocket or the team. What's amazing
is that it took this long to happen," said Mike Gold, business
operations director with Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace.
The Dragon capsule was loaded with 5,461 pounds (2,477 kg) of food,
clothing, equipment and science experiments for the space station, a
$100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles (420 km)
above Earth.
Dragon is the only one of the four cargo ships flying to the station
that can return science experiments and gear to Earth. The other
spacecraft - Russia’s Progress, Orbital’s Cygnus and Japan’s HTV -
burn up in the atmosphere after they make their deliveries and are
released back into space.
Equipment lost aboard Dragon include a spacesuit, water filtration
equipment, an oxygen tank and a docking system so space taxis under
development by SpaceX and Boeing can park at the station. NASA hopes
to turn over crew transportation to the U.S. companies before the
end of 2017, breaking Russia’s monopoly.
Including its station cargo runs for NASA, SpaceX has a backlog of
nearly 50 missions, worth more than $7 billion, including dozens of
commercial communications satellites.
The company last month won U.S. Air Force certification to fly
military and national security missions on the Falcon 9.
SpaceX holds a second NASA contract, worth up to $2.6 billion, to
upgrade its Dragon capsule to fly astronauts to the station.
Boeing’s contract is worth up $4.2 billion.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in
Washington; Editing by Eric Beech and Frances Kerry)
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