SpaceX-7 – Spaceflight Now

NASA releases summary of investigation into SpaceX’s 2015 launch failure

March 13, 2018 Stephen Clark

NASA’s independent review team that investigated the destruction of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon supply ship shortly after liftoff in June 2015 concluded a design error led to the loss of more than two tons of provisions and equipment heading for the International Space Station.

Boeing borrows from inventory to speed docking adapter delivery

May 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Spare parts warehoused in the the United States and Russia will help Boeing finish assembly of a third space station docking port to receive arriving astronauts aboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules, replacing a unit lost in a Falcon 9 launch failure last year.

SpaceX adds abort function for Dragon cargo flights

April 7, 2016 Stephen Clark

Taking a lesson from a launch mishap last June, SpaceX wrote coded commands for future Dragon cargo capsules to deploy their parachutes for an emergency landing in the event of rocket failures, starting with Friday’s resupply flight to the International Space Station.

Orbcomm first in Falcon 9’s return-to-flight launch queue

October 18, 2015 Stephen Clark

Going with a philosophy that favors incremental testing of an upgraded version of the Falcon 9 booster, SpaceX officials said Friday that eleven mini-satellites for Orbcomm’s data relay business will fly on the company’s first mission since a launch failure in June.

Planet Labs takes rash of launch failures in stride

September 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

No one had ever lost 26 satellites at once until a launch failure bit Planet Labs last year, temporarily setting back the San Francisco startup’s ambition to map the globe every day.

Falcon 9 rocket to be grounded longer than expected

September 1, 2015 Stephen Clark

The beginning of November will be the earliest SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket can resume launching after a June 28 failure blamed on a deficient structural support brace inside the the vehicle’s second stage, a SpaceX executive said Monday.

Support strut probable cause of Falcon 9 failure

July 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

A faulty support strut inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s second stage liquid oxygen tank likely broke free during a June 28 space station resupply launch, destroying the booster minutes after liftoff in a cloud of debris over the Atlantic Ocean, SpaceX chief Elon Musk said Monday.

Musk: Falcon 9 rocket failure a “huge blow” to SpaceX

July 7, 2015 Stephen Clark

Speaking publicly for the first time since a Falcon 9 rocket failure that destroyed a Dragon cargo capsule for the International Space Station, SpaceX founder Elon Musk said Tuesday that engineers are still piecing together what happened during the June 28 accident in hopes of announcing more details within a few days.

Air Force stays the course with SpaceX rocket certification

July 2, 2015 Stephen Clark

Sunday’s Falcon 9 rocket failure may have blemished SpaceX’s success record, but the mishap will not keep the entrepreneurial space company from competing for U.S. military launch contracts with rival United Launch Alliance, according to an Air Force general.

Data, not debris, takes spotlight in Falcon 9 failure investigation

July 1, 2015 Stephen Clark

Although recovery teams in the Atlantic Ocean have retrieved wreckage from Sunday’s Falcon 9 launch failure, the best clues to the cause of the crash lie in raw data transmitted from the rocket as it disintegrated, SpaceX officials said Wednesday.