Explosion Rocks SpaceX Launch Site in Florida During Test

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The Associated Press is reporting an explosion at the SpaceX launch site in Florida. There isn't any information available yet as to the cause of the explosion. SpaceX and NASA have yet to comment on the incident.

An explosion has rocked the SpaceX launch site in Florida. NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred Thursday morning. The test, considered routine, was in advance of a planned Saturday launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Buildings several miles away shook from the blast, and multiple explosions continued for several minutes. A cloud of dark smoke filled the overcast sky.

*UPDATE* SpaceX has confirmed that there were no injuries as a result of the blast but Facebook's $200 million satellite wasn't so lucky.
 
The routine test successfully found a problem prior to launch. Which is why you do testing. Wonder if the payload was already installed or if this test is prior to that step?
 
I wondered why Elon's twitter feed has been strangely quiet the last day.
 
In order to fail at something, first you have to try. And no matter how much you hate Elon Musk, he's the only billionare that spends his money on stuff that benefits the whole of humanity.

No, giving to charities is a band aid, not a solution.
 
^^ Especially when some charities are found to be only giving only 2% of the money to the cause they are supposedly supporting. (Ref: Veterans charity that gave less than 2% of revenue to veterans closes its doors for good - CNNPolitics.com )

Explosion Rocks SpaceX Launch Site in Florida

From the ABC News article:
SpaceX was in the process of conducting a fueling test on Launch Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral when the incident occurred, an engineer at Kennedy Space Center told ABC News.

The explosion happened "in preparation for today's static fire," which resulted in "the loss of the vehicle and its payload," SpaceX said in a statement.
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Dead Parrot said:
The routine test successfully found a problem prior to launch. Which is why you do testing. Wonder if the payload was already installed or if this test is prior to that step?
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Yes. It was loaded with the payload.
 
Reddit sources claiming it was a problem with the pad, not the rocket. Anywhere from 2-6 months before any more launches can happen again, longer of course if SpaceX was at fault somehow or a fault of the rocket. Guess Musk's Mars announcements will have to wait. TSLA stock is getting pummeled for no good reason, so if you wanted in on that when it was cheap after Brexit, now's another chance.
 
Elon Musk, he's the only billionare that spends his money on stuff that benefits the whole of humanity
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What about Jeff Bezos?? He has a aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company, and please don't tell me Amazon Prime delivery doesn't benefit the whole of humanity!! :rolleyes:

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Dead Parrot said:
The routine test successfully found a problem prior to launch. Which is why you do testing. Wonder if the payload was already installed or if this test is prior to that step?
Click to expand...

Im pretty astounded that they did a hot-fire test with the payload installed. I work in this industry, and mitigating risk to flight hardware is a top priority. It makes me think this was a schedule driven decision that someone is going to get in big trouble for.
 
workshop35 said:
Im pretty astounded that they did a hot-fire test with the payload installed. I work in this industry, and mitigating risk to flight hardware is a top priority. It makes me think this was a schedule driven decision that someone is going to get in big trouble for.
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I imagine it takes quite some time to install a payload. the launch was supposed to be saturday.
 
Dead Parrot said:
The routine test successfully found a problem prior to launch. Which is why you do testing. Wonder if the payload was already installed or if this test is prior to that step?
Click to expand...

No, they lost the payload satillite as well I believe. I just finished reading the update.

It's crazy that they can't get it right after so many tries.....I mean, they do one or 2 successful tests for every 4-5 failures......its really hit or miss.
 
Insula Gilliganis said:
What about Jeff Bezos?? He has a aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company, and please don't tell me Amazon Prime delivery doesn't benefit the whole of humanity!! :rolleyes:
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Oh I'm right on the fence with Bezos. I'm not actually sure if he's an alien. I wouldn't be a least bit surprised by that.
 
jiminator said:
I imagine it takes quite some time to install a payload. the launch was supposed to be saturday.
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Yeah, thats why I'm guessing someone made a call to install the payload first due to time constraints. I could be wrong though, this could be standard practice for spacex. They have a really bad reputation in the industry for cutting corners.
 
workshop35 said:
Yeah, thats why I'm guessing someone made a call to install the payload first due to time constraints. I could be wrong though, this could be standard practice for spacex. They have a really bad reputation in the industry for cutting corners.
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Doesn't surprise me, they are a corporation and cutting corners is sorta the thing to do.
 
workshop35 said:
Yeah, thats why I'm guessing someone made a call to install the payload first due to time constraints. I could be wrong though, this could be standard practice for spacex. They have a really bad reputation in the industry for cutting corners.
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On twitter, they said it was the customer's (Facebook) call to install the payload for the test fire.
 
workshop35 said:
They have a really bad reputation in the industry for cutting corners.
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To be fair, this is what government contractors always say when projects start leaving the realm of government contracts and become private industry run.

In some cases they are right, but in some cases they are just flummoxed at the more efficient and less bureaucratic nature of private industry.

After all, it's not as if NASA haven't had their own explosions over the years, some even with loss of life...
 
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natos said:
No, they lost the payload satillite as well I believe. I just finished reading the update.

It's crazy that they can't get it right after so many tries.....I mean, they do one or 2 successful tests for every 4-5 failures......its really hit or miss.
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True, sometimes I am like WTF!!, but the Russians have been pretty good at this shit, and they fail a lot too, so overall, we are doing as well as expected I suppose.
Now the Russian said they designed a pulse rocket, that is supposedly viable for production, we see how that goes in a few decades I suppose.
 
No tinfoil hatted folks to mention it was an Israeli communications satellite? Maybe it wasn't an accident?
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
To be fair, this is what government contractors always say when projects start leaving the real of government contracts and become private industry run.

In some cases they are right, but in some cases they are just flummoxed at the more efficient and less bureaucratic nature of private industry.

After all, it's not as if NASA haven't had their own explosions over the years, some even with loss of life...
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100% true. But this isnt a new industry, and from what people who worked there have said, they are not as concerned with program integrity and safety as they should be.

I'm all for innovation and competition though, so its actually a good thing that the private sector has entered the market. We'll never get to mars and beyond without a little push.
 
And in other Elon Musk news.... Tesla's cash burn rate is severe. Going through 70% of their cash on hand. Not a good day for Elon Musk.
 
Not sure if someone cleared this up or not, but it was Israeli AMOS-6 payload, not facebook.

The big issue here is how long will it push their schedule, since it seems like they have/had a full launch schedule for at least the next 6 to 12 months. Those getting pushed or going to ULA? I'm interested to see how they are going to mitigate the push I guess because this was inevitable, so I am going to assume they had a plan for these types of failures.
 
ob1 said:
Not sure if someone cleared this up or not, but it was Israeli AMOS-6 payload, not facebook.

The big issue here is how long will it push their schedule, since it seems like they have/had a full launch schedule for at least the next 6 to 12 months. Those getting pushed or going to ULA? I'm interested to see how they are going to mitigate the push I guess because this was inevitable, so I am going to assume they had a plan for these types of failures.
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I'd imagine that none of the satellite operators would want a launch without SpaceX determining the cause of this explosion. Plus, with the launch pad completely destroyed, SpaceX will need time to repair it or get their other pad operational earlier than scheduled.
 
ob1 said:
Not sure if someone cleared this up or not, but it was Israeli AMOS-6 payload, not facebook.

The big issue here is how long will it push their schedule, since it seems like they have/had a full launch schedule for at least the next 6 to 12 months. Those getting pushed or going to ULA? I'm interested to see how they are going to mitigate the push I guess because this was inevitable, so I am going to assume they had a plan for these types of failures.
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Facebook had leased the entire Ka-Band payload of AMOS-6 for part of their "provide social networking to people who currently enjoy freedom some social media" project in Africa.
 
ob1 said:
Not sure if someone cleared this up or not, but it was Israeli AMOS-6 payload, not facebook.

The big issue here is how long will it push their schedule, since it seems like they have/had a full launch schedule for at least the next 6 to 12 months. Those getting pushed or going to ULA? I'm interested to see how they are going to mitigate the push I guess because this was inevitable, so I am going to assume they had a plan for these types of failures.
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It's gonna hurt. Figure at least a 6 month no fly timeout, the LC-40 pad is now mostly destroyed, LC-39A is still being built (and built for falcon heavy, not sure if you can just plug in regular falcon9), brownsville is still being built, and vandenberg is functional, but only for polar orbits.
 
dave99 said:
It's gonna hurt. Figure at least a 6 month no fly timeout, the LC-40 pad is now mostly destroyed, LC-39A is still being built (and built for falcon heavy, not sure if you can just plug in regular falcon9), brownsville is still being built, and vandenberg is functional, but only for polar orbits.
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As a resident of Vandenberg, I'd like to remind you that we can still launch nukes too.
 
Bandalo said:
As a resident of Vandenberg, I'd like to remind you that we can still launch nukes too.
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True, although if you are launching nukes, then you probably aren't concerned about launching over high density civilian populations..:)
 
Admiral Equinox said:
Zuck also confirmed it was Facebook's satellite.
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Well, the satellite isn't owned or operated by Facebook. Facebook LEASED about half the satellite's total capacity, and they were the largest customer on that particular vehicle.

I'm not sure of the details of their contract, but since Facebook clearly isn't going to get the services they were paying for, they'll likely get most of their money back and can find another satellite with some spare Ka capacity.
 
I said nothing of them paying for it, owning or any mention of a lease, except for Zuck's confirmation that it was going to be used for Facebook's operations.
I guess I should be super super super clear next time.
 
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