Space launches have moments of pure ecstasy, and days when nobody would want to get out of bed if they could. Last Thursday was one of those days, when at Cape Canaveral one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets exploded just minutes before a scheduled static fire test, in preparation for its official launch later today. Fortunately, safety protocols worked perfectly and nobody was hurt, but the explosion caused the total loss of the Amos-6 satellite from the Israeli company Spacecom, which was to be used by Facebook to bring satellite internet to Africa.
Going to space is very complicated, and if there is one company learning that the hard way, it is SpaceX. The whole world was surprised when Elon Musk and his team managed to land two Falcon 9 rockets, one on land and the other on a platform at sea. Both achievements serve as foundational stones for rocket reusability, which translates into very cheap launches, but the Falcon 9's record is not without blemishes. If we ignore those partial and "expected" failures, the most serious incident was in June 2015, when the CRS-7 mission exploded 139 seconds after launch. NASA lost nearly $100 million in cargo, yet the US agency remains alongside SpaceX, and is one of its most important sponsors. Last Thursday, SpaceX and the Falcon 9 added another mark to their list of incidents.
Everything was in motion for the Falcon 9 to take off from Cape Canaveral today and place the Amos-6 satellite into orbit, developed by the Israeli Spacecom. The satellite was to be used mainly by Facebook, and its goal was to provide satellite internet to part of the African continent, under the Internet.org initiative. As with each launch, on Thursday morning a static fire test was carried out to verify the integrity and operation of the rocket. Thanks to the video from USLaunchReport, it is possible to see that the explosion begins at the top of the rocket, near the liquid oxygen tank. In other words, the test had not started yet, and the detonation occurred during fueling. It is still unknown whether there was a failure in the launch pad system, or if the defect was in the rocket, which, by the way, was "not" one of the recovered units.
The coming weeks will be very complicated for all involved. SpaceX is analyzing three thousand telemetry channels, and most likely will find the problem in one of them. Mark Zuckerberg expressed his disappointment through the social network, something not surprising given that Facebook and Eutelsat paid $95 million for five years solely for usage of the Ka band of the Amos-6. Spacecom's shares lost nine points in a day, and its future is worrying. Depending on the cause (read "if the problem is not the rocket"), SpaceX could return to launches in a short time, but one thing is certain: Thursday's event was the second major incident with a Falcon 9 in fifteen months. Mars can wait.
(Editor's note: Max mentioned the incident in his recommended links, but it deserved a more extensive and dedicated article.)
