Something least expected in the history of space exploration happened earlier in September - an explosion of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, which was about to launch. The explosion of the rocket erupted a series of controversies, and now it seems that the future of SpaceX is doomed.
The explosion took place as the rocket was taking the payload at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft was scheduled to carry an Amos-6 satellite worth $205 million. The satellite was owned by Spacecom and was supposed to be used by Facebook and Eutelsat, according to Forbes.
Ten days have already passed since the day of the explosion, but the reason behind explosion is still not clean. Now, the space start-up, founded by Elon Musk, faces the wrath of the customers and the investors as the future of the company continues to remain uncertain. It is predicted that the company will lose millions of dollars' worth of revenue as a result of the explosion.
However, the company has taken a pledge to return to flight in a safe and reliable way. The space start-up continues to investigate into the reason for explosion, with support from the American space agency, NASA, the US air force, FAA and the experts in the field of space sciences.
Meanwhile, Musk described the accident as "the most difficult and complex failure we have ever had in 14 years." Post investigation, Musk revealed that the accident took place during the routine filling operation. The engines were off and there was no source of heat around, which may have led to explosion.
The whole incident is expected to be thoroughly investigated in the near future and for the same reason, the chances of SpaceX flying again and that also anytime sooner seems dim. The first SpaceX launch failure took place back in 2015 and the start-up took another six months to launch their next mission.
Aerospace analyst Bill Ostrove believes that it is unlikely for SpaceX to launch another mission in 2016, especially considering the fact that the cause of the explosion is not clear yet.
