The American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company SpaceX confirmed this Wednesday that its most recent rocket just exploded last Sunday due to unknown reasons. The founder and CEO, Elon Musk, informed that the team is investigating which was the cause of the engine malfunction that made the rocket blow.
The company’s statement assured that the team followed all the “safety protocols” at the company’s test facility in McGregor, Texas and that no one was injured in what they called the “qualification test.” Unfortunately, they have to start another investigation again, but now to find the reasons for the company’s Merlin engine explosion — a completely-new technology that hasn’t ever been tested in flight.
Although SpaceX has had previous and unfortunate tragedies, the company has achieved high records this year. Just in 2017, the company has successfully launched 16 rockets — doubling the usual number that the company usually launches, and getting closer to the number of launches of SpaceX’s rival: the United Launch Alliance.
SpaceX has not only launched commercial satellites this year. Its CEO Elon Musk has previously said that there have been many flights to the ISS with cargos especially directed to astronauts performing studies.
The company has also worked with the Pentagon by developing and launching special satellites.
According to a spokeswoman for Air Force, some officials from Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center were attending the SpaceX’s Texas facilities when the rocket exploded.
Elon Musk has previously said he wants his company to be the first able to send humans in both commercial and private flights to the Moon and Mars. NASA, which is working with the company, expects to send astronauts to the fourth planet in our Solar System in around one to three years. In August, SpaceX’s CEO released photos of the spacesuit that astronauts would be using in the mission.
The company is not giving up on this. This was just one out of many tests. At least three times more SpaceX plans to launch others Falcon 9 — including next week, for a national security mission at the Kennedy Space Center.