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SpaceX Releases Preliminary Findings on Falcon 9 Explosion

Photo: NASA TV
Photo: NASA TV

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he has a better idea about what happened during last month’s Falcon 9 explosion.

The rocket exploded about 2 minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral late last month.

Musk said the problem stemmed from a faulty strut inside the rocket’s upper stage. The strut’s failure caused an increase in helium gas which caused the upper stage of the Falcon 9 to explode.

While Musk says they think they’ve gotten to the bottom if this problem, his engineers are using this an opportunity to double check other systems:

“We’re looking very closely– just in general – is there anything we can do to reduce the probability of failure in future flights,” said Musk.

SpaceX will replace the strut with a stronger material. Musk said SpaceX launches will be delayed until at least September.

Brendan Byrne is WMFE's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the WMFE newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing WMFE's internship program.

Byrne also hosts WMFE's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration.