SpaceX explosion : the Falcon 9 is due to a fault – The Point

More than two months after the explosion of its rocket Falcon 9 on its shooting range in Cape Canaveral, SpaceX seems to have discovered the origin of the incident, which has been detrimental to his image and destroyed a satellite of Facebook, estimated at $ 195 million. After conducting several tests, the company of billionaire Elon Musk believes that it is quite possible that a fault may have caused the explosion.

storage of helium

For a time, the idea of sabotage was the preferred option, but the team that investigated on this case seems to have ruled out this hypothesis. Members of SpaceX but also Nasa, the US Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration have jointly worked on this case. They have noticed a breach in the system of helium cryogenic located in the liquid oxygen tank on the second floor of the rocket. It might have been caused by a fault that has not yet been identified. “The exact cause of this breach has not yet been confirmed,” says the company in a press release, ” but our attention is now focused on one of the three tanks, COPVs (composite overwrapped pressure vessels) “. These tanks are those in which is loaded the helium within the liquid oxygen tank. An error in the temperature or the pressure of the helium may have resulted in the explosion of the rocket.

new flights before the end of the year

Despite this incident, SpaceX who still send humans on Mars don’t intend to stop his efforts and ad want to do to relaunch their rockets by the end of the year. “We continue to work to resume flights before the end of the year,” says the company Elon Musk. “Our sites launches at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and the Air Force base at Vandenberg, California, expected to be operational by then. “

Through the rocket Falcon, Elon Musk hopes to eventually reduce the cost of space launches and send a first manned mission to mars in 2024. At the end of the month of September, despite the setbacks of SpaceX, billionaire genius and freakish said that he was optimistic at the presentation of his project of conquest of space to establish a colony on the red planet.