Yesterday, an unmanned SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket carrying a robotic Dragon cargo capsule for crew members aboard the International Space Station exploded in mid-air just minutes after its launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
According to NBC News, The rocket took off after a routine countdown procedure but burst into flames at 10:21 am, two minutes into its flight. The website notes that this is the third resupply mission failure aimed at the station in eight months.
NASA reports that key supplies have been lost as a result of the accident but the space station's crew still has resources to last until October of this year. According to CNN, the wrecked cargo container was carrying 2 tons of goods, including 1,500 pounds of food and provisions for the station's inhabitants.
Tesla Billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk took to his official Twitter account to report on the mission's failure saying that: "there was an overpressure event in the upper-stage liquid oxygen tank."
NASA spokesman George Diller said the rocket "experienced an anomaly". While associate director Bill Gerstenmaier spoke of the complicated, unpredictable nature of space travel. "We are operating systems at the edge of their ability. This is a very demanding environment that requires tremendous precision and tremendous amounts of engineering skill - for hardware to perform exactly as it should."
In an official statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden promised to solider on and pinpoint the cause of the accident. "However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months," Bolden said. "We will work closely with SpaceX to understand what happened, fix the problem and return to flight."
Yesterday's failed mission is the first time SpaceX has failed to make a resupply mission to the International Space Station. Prior to this the Dragon made six successful cargo runs the most recent of which took place in April.
