The OSIRIS-Rex shuttle has been sitting atop an Atlas V rocket in an adjoining facility when the SpaceX booster exploded during a static test. The incident has caused the destruction of the Falcon 9 including a $200 million-worth communications satellite.
In a report, 45th Space Wing Mission Support Group Commander Lt. Col. Greg Lindsey has detailed the emergency response to the blast at the Cape Canaveral Air Force station. Included in his narrative is how technicians had to force their way in order to save OSIRIS-REx as emergency personnel battled out fires in the adjacent area.
Lindsey has been told that the cooling system at Launch Complex 41was losing pressure as his team responded to the explosion. He states that the Asteroid-seeking spacecraft would have been lost if not for the chillers. His re-establishment of priorities has meant allowing access for technicians to enter in order to make the necessary repairs.
"Space is inherently dangerous. On this day, we were faced with a difficult challenge, but one we were ready for. Moving forward, there will be some rebuilding that is necessary, but everyone went home safe to their families that night and woke up the next morning ready to go at it again," the group commander declares.
Computer and video data have been scoured by SpaceX in order to find clues that would explain the devastating launch pad blast. The accident on Thursday has occurred during a pre-launch test, around eight minutes prior to the fire that caught the Falcon rocket.
By Friday, 3,000 data, which covered a time period between 35 to 55 milliseconds, are being reviewed. It is unclear how badly the pad was destroyed but SpaceX has noted that a couple other spots at Kennedy Space Center and in California can be utilized for upcoming launches until the damaged pad is fixed.
Meanwhile, the launching of the OSIRIS REx will be NASA's first mission to retrieve and return samples of pristine materials from the surface of an asteroid and return them to earth for high-powered analyses by the world's most advanced science instruments.
