This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.
On this day nine years ago, SpaceX’s first and only Falcon 9 in-flight anomaly occurred after the rocket carrying a cargo mission for NASA exploded in midair. The launch was carrying SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon spacecraft as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, and while the Dragon successfully launched from the Falcon 9, the spacecraft’s parachutes did not deploy due to a software configuration. A NASA investigation later discovered the flaw in the stainless steel used inside the spacecraft, and since then, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft has completed dozens of crew and cargo missions into space.
The single launch failure mid-flight of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 occurred on June 28, 2015
At the time, SpaceX was flying NASA’s seventh contracted cargo mission on the Falcon 9 rocket aboard the Dragon spacecraft. The vehicle was SpaceX’s first-generation Dragon, and liftoff was at 9:21 a.m. ET. Things seemed to go well for most of the rocket’s flight portion. As the Falcon 9 took off, SpaceX’s ground controllers regularly called out nominal milestones.
However, two minutes and nineteen seconds into the flight, the rocket went up in smoke, and approximately twelve seconds later, debris could be seen flying through the air. The rest of the live stream was uneventful, with a SpaceX presenter commenting at the end that “there was some kind of anomaly during the first stage flight. What we do know is that the countdown was satisfying; we fired up the nine Merlin engines; we successfully removed the SLC-40 launch pad at Cape Canaveral; we went through stressful in-flight events, passed maximum dynamic pressure and went supersonic. However, it seems that something happened during the first phase operations.He added that engineers would analyze the data, with Falcon 9 compiling data from multiple streams to help engineers make informed decisions.
SpaceX’s initial investigation found that it took just 0.893 seconds from the first indication of a malfunction to the loss of all telemetry. Detailed investigations conducted by NASA and SpaceX outlined that the Falcon 9’s first stage did not cause the explosion.
Instead, it was the second stage that was responsible for the accident. SpaceX shared that a “event on pressure” Inside the liquid oxygen tank inside the second stage caused the explosion, with a failed prop that damaged the helium pressurization system inside the tank. A rocket’s fuel tanks are under internal pressure throughout flight. This is because while the fuel is being used , the tank must hold the pressure, or it will collapse from the inside due to the lower pressure.
NASA’s full investigation added more details. He pointed out that while SpaceX’s explanation for the pole breaking due to a defect was possible, other explanations, such as manufacturing damage and faulty installation, were equally likely. NASA added that SpaceX chose to use an industrial-grade stainless steel part instead of an aerospace-grade one, without inspecting or testing the part, following the manufacturer’s recommendation, and not modeling or load-testing the part according to “anticipated flight conditions.”