SpaceX: Accident points to breach in rocket’s helium system

September 23 23:00 2016

A breach in the rocket’s helium system may have caused the devastating explosion of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 on September 1, according to an update from the company.

After the CRS-7 explosion, SpaceX ended up slightly revamping its Falcon 9 rocket.

While this represents a step forward, SpaceX still has not identified the root cause of the accident. The approximate anomaly window is a scant 93 milliseconds, barely under one-tenth of a second long. The statement indicates that preliminary findings show the explosion was likely caused by a breach in the rocket’s cryogenic helium system. “Through the fault tree and data review process, we have exonerated any connection with last year’s. mishap”.

No details were shared about the company’s next launch, other than to reiterate SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell’s previous belief that the company would launch again in November.

“The Accident Investigation Team (AIT), composed of SpaceX, the FAA, NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and industry experts, are now scouring through approximately 3,000 channels of engineering data along with video, audio and imagery”. The incident resulted in the loss of one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets and the Amos-6 satellite, which was an Israeli communications satellite bound for space. The company gathered up footage of the fire as well as recovering and cataloguing all the remaining debris, which they stored up in a hangar to try and find the source of the problem.

“While substantial areas of the pad systems were affected, the Falcon Support Building adjacent to the pad was unaffected, and per standard procedure was unoccupied at the time of the anomaly”, the post read, pointing out that tanks and other infrastructure related to transporting liquid oxygen was unaffected. No debris appears to have strayed beyond the SpaceX-leased Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

But the company’s Falcon Support Building near the pad suffered no major damage and new liquid oxygen tanks and plumbing, along with almost RP-1 kerosene storage tanks were “largely unaffected”.

Diagram of the Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage. Credit SpaceX

SpaceX: Accident points to breach in rocket’s helium system
 
 
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