Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: SpaceX rocket explodes after launch

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: June 29, 2015 at 9:30:27 AM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: SpaceX rocket explodes after launch

June 28, 2015
15-140

NASA Administrator Statement on the Loss of SpaceX CRS-7
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the loss Sunday of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services 7 (CRS-7) mission.
"We are disappointed in the loss of the latest SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months. We will work closely with SpaceX to understand what happened, fix the problem and return to flight. The commercial cargo program was designed to accommodate loss of cargo vehicles. We will continue operation of the station in a safe and effective way as we continue to use it as our test bed for preparing for longer duration missions farther into the solar system.
"A Progress vehicle is ready to launch July 3, followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight. Orbital ATK, our other commercial cargo partner, is moving ahead with plans for its next launch later this year.
"SpaceX has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first six cargo resupply missions to the station, and we know they can replicate that success. We will work with and support SpaceX to assess what happened, understand the specifics of the failure and correct it to move forward. This is a reminder that spaceflight is an incredible challenge, but we learn from each success and each setback. Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our ambitious human spaceflight program."
David Weaver
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
david.s.weaver@nasa.gov
Last Updated: June 28, 2015
Editor: Allard Beutel

SpaceX rocket destroyed on way to space station, cargo lost
By MARCIA DUNN
An unmanned SpaceX rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station broke apart Sunday shortly after liftoff. It was a severe blow to NASA, the third cargo mission to fail in eight months.
The accident happened about 2½ minutes into the flight from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A billowing white cloud emerged in the sky, growing bigger and bigger, then fiery plumes shot out. Pieces of the rocket could be seen falling into the Atlantic like a fireworks display gone wrong.
More than 5,200 pounds of space station cargo were on board, including the first docking port designed for future commercial crew capsules, a new spacesuit and a water filtration system.
NASA officials said they have enough supplies for the three-person crew on board the station to last till October and still plan to send three more crewmembers up in a late July launch. Normally, NASA likes to have a six-month cushion of food and water, but is now down to four months.
"We're good from a food and water standpoint," NASA's top spaceflight official, William Gerstenmaier said at a press conference.
This puts added pressure on another resupply launch scheduled for Friday by Russia, it's first attempt since losing a supply capsule in April.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket shattered while traveling at 2,900 mph, about 27 miles up. Everything seemed to be going well until the rocket went supersonic.
"We appear to have had a launch vehicle failure," announced NASA commentator George Diller. Data stopped flowing from the Falcon 9 rocket around 2 minutes and 19 seconds, he said.
SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk later said that the pressure got too high in the liquid-oxygen tank of the rocket's upper stage.
"That's all we can say with confidence right now," Musk said via Twitter.
The private company is in charge of the accident investigation, with oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration, which licensed the flight.
The Dragon capsule, which is designed to eventually carry people, still sent signals to the ground after the rocket broke apart, said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. Had astronauts been on board, a still-being tested abort system, would have whisked them away to safety in such a mishap, she said.
SpaceX hopes to launch astronauts from U.S. soil again aboard the Falcon-Dragon combination in December 2017. They still can make that target, Shotwell said. Now NASA buys seats from Russia to get astronauts to the orbiting lab.
Shotwell assured reporters that the California-based company will fix the problem — "and get back to flight."
Losing this shipment — which included replacements for items lost in the two earlier failed supply flights — was a huge setback for NASA.
"This is a blow to us," Gerstenmaier said, citing the docking port, a spacesuit and considerable scientific research that had been on board. He said there was nothing common among the three accidents, "other than it's space and it's difficult to go fly."
In April, a Russian cargo ship spun out of control and burned up upon re-entry. And last October, an Orbital Sciences Corp. capsule was destroyed in a launch accident in Virginia. Orbital Sciences and SpaceX have NASA contracts to ship cargo.
"Three failures on three different vehicles is unusual, but it would be even more worrisome if we had only one means of access," former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace wrote in an email to The Associated Press.
In addition to Friday's scheduled Russian launch, Orbital Sciences may be able to launch their supply ship at the end of this year, using another company's rocket. And a Japanese resupply ship is scheduled for August, Gerstenmaier said.
The seven previous SpaceX supply runs, dating back to 2012, had gone exceedingly well.
The three space station residents were watching the launch live from orbit, including astronaut Scott Kelly.
"Sadly failed," Kelly said via Twitter. "Space is hard."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and other officials stressed that the space station crew is in no immediate trouble. NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said the water filtration system is nearing the point where it can't function much longer, but there is still enough stored water to make it to October or so.
Gerstenmaier said the loss shouldn't postpone plans to send three more men to join the crew on July 22, a flight already delayed two months.
Along with SpaceX, Boeing is also developing crew capsules for NASA. Boeing designed the new docking system that was lost on the SpaceX flight, but a second version is still available to send up, officials said.
Shotwell said the first stage of the rocket seemed to work well. The company had planned to try to land the discarded booster on an ocean platform.
Kelly's identical twin, Mark, a former space shuttle commander who is taking part in medical studies on the ground, pointed out that SpaceX, until now, had "a great record" with its Falcon 9 rockets.
"These things happen," he said in a tweet. "They will figure this out."
Launch spectators lining the beaches near Cape Canaveral were confused, at first, by the unexpected plumes in the sky.
"It looked fine until it was almost out of sight. And then, a poof of smoke," said Whitney Jackson of Palm Beach, Florida, watching with her family. "Everyone was cheering and clapping. No one knew it meant failure."
The Air Force later warned people along the Florida coast not to handle any debris washing ashore.
Sunday was Musk's 44th birthday. The SpaceX founder also runs his electric car company, Tesla.
"Yeah, not the best birthday," Musk tweeted.
___
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington and reporter Alex Sanz in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

SpaceX rocket supplying space station explodes after Florida launch
By Irene Klotz

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View photo
An unmanned SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, June 28, 2015. The rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff on Sunday, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station, NASA said. REUTERS/Mike Brown

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff from Florida on Sunday, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station in the latest in a string of mishaps in supplying the orbiting outpost.
The 208-foot-tall (63-meter) rocket, built and flown by the company known as SpaceX that is owned by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, had previously made 18 successful launches since its 2010 debut. Those included six cargo runs for NASA under a 15-flight contract worth more than $2 billion.
The accident soon after liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was the second successive botched mission to resupply the space station. A Russian Progress cargo ship failed to reach the outpost in April following a problem with its Soyuz launcher. Russia plans to launch a replacement capsule on Friday.
Only SpaceX's Dragon capsules, however, return cargo and critical experiment results back from the station. The company's next supply run for NASA had been targeted for September, but the launch schedule is likely to be revised.
The explosion also marks a setback for SpaceX, which was poised to compete for the first time against United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co and the current sole launch provider for military and spy satellite launches, to launch a GPS III satellite.
Musk said on Twitter: "Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data."
A spokesman for the company had no immediate further comment.
It was not immediately clear if the rocket broke apart on its own, or if Air Force range safety officers detonated explosives on the rocket, part of a system to ensure wayward boosters do not impact populated areas, NASA said.
Air Force officials were not immediately available to comment.
The crew - two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut - on the International Space Station has about four months of food and supplies on board, so the accident does not pose an immediate problem for them.
However, NASA's second cargo transporter, run by Orbital ATK , remains grounded following a launch accident in October.
EQUIPMENT, FOOD, EXPERIMENTS LOST
SpaceX lost contact with the Falcon 9 about 2 minutes and 19 seconds after liftoff, NASA launch commentator George Diller said.
"It's not clear yet from the data what happened. They are beginning to play back video to look and see if there are any indications in the video what may have happened," he said.
The accident occurred just before the rocket was to discard its first stage two minutes 39 seconds after liftoff.
Despite the explosion, one SpaceX customer voiced support in the company and the Falcon 9.
"One inevitable failure for such a young system should not in any way shake anyone's faith in the rocket or the team. What's amazing is that it took this long to happen," said Mike Gold, business operations director with Nevada-based Bigelow Aerospace.
The spacecraft lost on Sunday carried 5,461 pounds (2,477 kg) of food, clothing, equipment and science experiments for the station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles (420 km) above Earth.
The gear included the first of two docking systems for space taxis under development by SpaceX and Boeing to park at the station. NASA hopes to turn over crew transportation to the U.S. companies before the end of 2017, breaking Russia's monopoly.
Including its station cargo runs for NASA, SpaceX has a backlog of nearly 50 missions, worth more than $7 billion, including dozens of commercial communications satellites. The company last month won U.S. Air Force certification to fly military and national security missions on the Falcon 9.
SpaceX holds a second NASA contract, worth up to $2.6 billion, to upgrade its Dragon capsule to fly astronauts to the station. Boeing's contract is worth up $4.2 billion.
In addition to its launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, SpaceX leases one of the mothballed space shuttle launch pads at the adjacent Kennedy Space Center and is building a new launch site in Texas.
The company has also flown once from a launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
(Reporting by Irene Klotz; Additional reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Eric Beech and Frances Kerry)
Copyright © 2015 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

SpaceX rocket explodes after launch
Miami (AFP) - An unmanned SpaceX rocket exploded less than three minutes after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Sunday, in the first major disaster for the fast-charging company headed by Internet tycoon Elon Musk.
The accident was the third in less than a year involving US and Russian supply ships bound for the International Space Station, and raised new concerns about the flow of food and gear to the astronauts living in orbit.
Skies were sunny and clear for the 10:21 am (1421 GMT) launch of the gleaming white Falcon 9 rocket that was meant to propel the Dragon cargo ship on a routine supply mission, the seventh for SpaceX so far.
But two minutes, 19 seconds into the flight, contact was lost. Live television images from SpaceX's webcast and NASA television showed a huge puff of smoke billowing outward for several seconds, then tiny bits of the rocket falling like confetti against a backdrop of blue sky.
"The vehicle has broken up," said NASA commentator George Diller.
SpaceX's live webcast of the launch went silent as the rocket exploded.
View gallery

This June 28, 2015 grab from NASA TV shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the unmanned Dragon cargo …
Moments later, a SpaceX commentator said the video link from the vehicle had been lost.
"There was some kind of anomaly during first stage flight," the commentator said, noting that the rocket had ignited its nine Merlin engines and reached supersonic speed.
Later, on Twitter, Musk said the Falcon 9 "experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown," referring to the phase of flight before the cargo ship would have been able to separate from the first stage of the rocket and reach orbit.
The problem appeared to be linked to excessive pressure in the liquid oxygen tank, Musk wrote.
"Data suggests counterintuitive cause," said Musk, a lifelong space enthusiast who also heads Tesla Motors.
View gallery

This June 28, 2015 grab from NASA TV shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the unmanned Dragon cargo …
"That's all we can say with confidence right now."
More details were expected in a NASA press conference scheduled for no earlier than 12:50 pm (1650 GMT).
- Cargo concerns -
The loss came as a surprise to many who have followed Musk's California-based company through more than a dozen successful launches, even as competitor Orbital Sciences lost one of its rockets in an explosion in October, and a Russian Progress supply ship was lost after liftoff in April.
"These things do happen, but this was not the best time for this to happen," said Marco Caceres, a rocket industry analyst with the Teal Group.
View gallery

This June 28, 2015 grab from NASA TV shows the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the unmanned Dragon cargo …
"The one thing you could count on over the past few years was that the Falcon 9 was going to perform and was going to perform well," he told AFP.
"In the midst of all this other chaos in the launch industry this was like, the one stable point and now we don't have that," he told AFP.
Caceres said the accident forces SpaceX, which has a billion-dollar-plus contract with NASA for supplying the ISS but is also competing with Boeing to send astronauts there by 2017, to launch again quickly.
"The moment they launch again successfully, this accident starts to fade into history really quickly. The longer they wait to launch again, the more people start talking about, 'Maybe we were too overconfident about SpaceX,'" he said.
The Dragon cargo ship was carrying 4,000 pounds (1,800 kilograms) of gear to the space station, including a large parking space, known as an International Docking Adaptor, designed to make it easier for an array of commercial crew spacecraft to dock at the orbiting lab in the future.
View gallery

This March 28, 2015 still image from NASA TV shows Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka entering the In …
"Very sorry to see @SpaceX launch failure. Serious ramifications for Space Station resupply. Good thing it's international," wrote Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield on Twitter.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden said the US space agency was "disappointed" at the loss but that the space station has "sufficient supplies for the next several months."
A Russian Progress supply ship is scheduled to launch July 3, followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight, Bolden said.
"Orbital ATK, our other commercial cargo partner, is moving ahead with plans for its next launch later this year."
Three men are currently living at the space station. Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and American astronaut Scott Kelly began their year-long mission in orbit back in March.
"Sadly failed. Space is hard," Kelly said on Twitter, posting a picture of his view of the Florida coast from space.
Earlier Sunday, station commander, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, 57, set a new world record when he became the person who has officially spent the longest amount of cumulative time in space -- 804 days.
His career includes one trip to the Mir Space Station and four to the ISS.

Copyright © 2015 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.

By William Harwood
CBS News
June 28, 2015, 11:16 AM
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket destroyed in launch mishap
Last Updated Jun 28, 2015 12:58 PM EDT
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 4,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station -- including a critical docking adapter needed by future U.S. crew ships -- broke apart in a shower of debris shortly after launch Sunday in a major setback for NASA and the California rocket company.
In a spectacular conflagration, the rocket, the 19th Falcon 9 launched by SpaceX since 2010, disintegrated in a sudden cloud of burning propellant followed moments later by arcing contrails of debris falling toward the Atlantic Ocean.
The last data from the spacecraft was received just under two-and-a-half minutes into flight. It was not immediately clear what triggered the failure, but unusual vapor plumes could be seen emanating from the upper section of the rocket before it went awry and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who turned 44 Sunday, confirmed a second stage pressurization issue.
"There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank," he tweeted. "Data suggests counterintuitive cause. ... That's all we can say with confidence right now. Will have more to say following a thorough fault tree analysis."
But the incident occurred just before the first stage's nine Merlin 1D engines were to shut down two minutes and 39 seconds after liftoff.
An instant before the Falcon 9 broke apart, the vehicle looked normal as it climed out of the dense lower atmosphere.
NASA TV
An instant before the Falcon 9 broke apart, the vehicle looked normal as it climed out of the dense lower atmosphere.
NASA TV
SpaceX founder Elon Musk, celebrating his 44th birthday Sunday, initially tweeted: "Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data."
Later in the morning, he added: "There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause. ... That's all we can say with confidence right now. Will have more to say following a thorough fault tree analysis."
The dramatic failure came eight months after an Oct. 28 explosion that destroyed a space station cargo craft build by Orbital Sciences Corp. and two months after a Russian cargo ship spun out of control moments after reaching orbit April 28.
The Russians say they have found and fixed a problem with the Soyuz upper stage and another Progress is scheduled for launch July 3, followed by launch of a Japanese cargo ship in August.
But the back-to-back Progress and Dragon cargo failures are a major setback for NASA and its space station partners, reducing the reserves of food, clothing and other consumables needed by the lab's crew.
More important, the first of two International Docking Adapters, or IDAs, was on board as part of a major station reconfiguration to ready the lab for arrival of U.S.-built crew ships starting in 2017. A second IDA is scheduled for launch aboard a Dragon capsule in December, but the SpaceX launch schedule will almost certainly face a major revision in the wake of Sunday's failure.
A few moments later, a cloud of debris and propellant engulfed the rocket as it broke up above the Atlantic Ocean. It is not yet known what might have triggered the failure.
NASA TV
A few moments later, a cloud of debris and propellant engulfed the rocket as it broke up above the Atlantic Ocean. It is not yet known what might have triggered the failure.
NASA TV
In the near term, both of NASA's U.S. space station resupply contractors -- SpaceX and Orbital Sciences -- are out of action, leaving only the Russian Progress and Japanese HTV freighter to carry up supplies and equipment.
Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Friday the station had enough on-board supplies to make it through October even if no other cargo ships show up. But the failure Sunday will require extensive contingency planning and it's not yet clear how that might play out.
Likewise, the failure will delay science operations. The SpaceX Dragon is the only spacecraft currently in operation that can bring cargo and research samples back to Earth, the failure Sunday will impact research aboard the station as sample returns will be suspended until the Falcon 9 returns to flight.
For SpaceX, a brash California company run by Musk, the failure was an equally dramatic setback. SpaceX that has been aggressively marketing its Falcon 9 boosters for commercial and military payloads, challenging the dominance of United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
The company had chalked up 18 successful Falcon 9 launches in a row since the rocket's debut in 2010 and the failure Sunday likely will force major changes in the company's flight manifest and, depending on what went wrong, it could trigger a crisis of confidence leading to higher insurance rates for commercial satellites.
SpaceX advertises Falcon 9 rockets for around $60 million each, some $50 million less than the least expensive Atlas 5 rocket currently offered by United Launch Alliance. But ULA's record with its current generation of Atlas 5 and Delta 4 boosters is 83 successful launches and no outright failures.
The Falcon 9 failure also will delay SpaceX's ambitious plans to perfect the technology needed to recover spent first stages for refurbishment and eventual reuse. Two attempts to land a Falcon 9 first stage on an off shore barge ended in failure in January and April and a third attempt was on tap Sunday.
Recovering, refurbishing and relaunching rocket stages that otherwise would be thrown away is a major element in Musk's drive to reduce the cost of spaceflight by operating a rocket company much like a commercial airline, re-flying boosters rather than building them from scratch for each flight.
But it was not to be. The rocket almost certainly will be grounded pending a detailed failure investigation.
The Falcon 9 blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:21 a.m. EDT. The rocket was destroyed less than two-and-a-half minutes later after a malfunction.
NASA TV
The Falcon 9 blasted off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:21 a.m. EDT. The rocket was destroyed less than two-and-a-half minutes later after a malfunction.
NASA TV
The mission got underway on time at 10:21 a.m. EDT (GMT-5) when the Falcon 9's nine Merlin 1D engines ignited with a roar, generating 1.2 million pounds of thrust that quickly pushed the 20-story tall rocket away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The initial moments of the climb out of the dense lower atmosphere appeared to go smoothly as the rocket arced away to the northeast on a trajectory paralleling the East Coast of the United States.
SpaceX engineers reported "propulsion nominal" and there were no indications of anything amiss as the rocket accelerated through a near cloudless blue sky.
But in an instant, the normal-looking exhaust plume suddenly ballooned, quickly expanding in chaotic fashion as something went terribly wrong. Moments later, debris trails could be seen arcing though the sky as the initial cloud began to dissipate.
Air Force range safety officers sent self-destruct commands, but it wasn't immediately known whether the commands were received aboard the rocket before it came apart on its own.
It was the seventh flight of a Falcon 9/Dragon resupply ship under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA calling for 12 missions to the space station to deliver 44,000 pounds of supplies and equipment through 2016. Orbital Sciences Corp. holds a similar $1.9 billion contract to launch Cygnus cargo craft.
Both companies are needed to replace the lost cargo capability of the now-retired space shuttle. Orbital's Antares will be grounded throughout 2015 while the company replaces the booster's first-stage engines, relics of the Soviet Union's ill-fated moon program. Now, the Falcon 9 will be grounded pending the results of an exhaustive failure investigation.
While the station crew will face no immediate problems from the loss of the Dragon cargo craft Monday -- officials say the lab complex is fairly well stocked at present -- it is not yet clear how long the station can support a crew of six given the available cargo ships.
An International Docking Adapter lost aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule Sunday was one of two needed by the space station for future dockings by U.S.-built crew ferry ships.
NASA TV
An International Docking Adapter lost aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule Sunday was one of two needed by the space station for future dockings by U.S.-built crew ferry ships.
NASA TV
"If something happened to SpaceX, we'd have to figure out where we were and how quickly they could return to flight and we would react accordingly," Suffredini said in an interview earlier this year. "The crew has enough supplies, including research, to continue to work for somewhere between four and six months. So the decision we'd have to make is, how quickly can SpaceX get back up? And then what can we do with our Russian colleagues with regard to any support they might supply?
"Then we'd have to look together about what are the right steps to take, do we go ahead and let everybody go home until we're ready to resupply again, or do we step down to three crew? And I suspect that's what we'd do if we had to, we'd step down to three crew first."
But given the supplies that are constantly stockpiled on board, mission planners would have "quite a bit of time" to work through a launch problem.
"In all cases, we have plenty of time to decide what to do next, figure out what we're really dealing with and then figure out how we want to react to it," he said.
The Falcon 9 launched Sunday was an upgraded version, featuring extended propellant tanks, more efficient and lighter engines, an new triply redundant flight computer and a custom nose cone intended for large commercial satellites.
Musk has repeatedly told reporters that SpaceX would continue its quest despite any initial failures, saying before a 2013 launch that "I'm confident we will certainly make it on some subsequent launch."

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Photos:
http://www.space.com/29788-spacex-rocket-landing-dragon-crs7-mission-photos.html

SpaceX Rocket Fails During Cargo Launch to Space Station
by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer   |   June 28, 2015 10:40am ET

An unmanned SpaceX cargo mission crashed back to Earth today (June 28), marking the third failure of a resupply flight to the International Space Station in the past eight months.
SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule blasted off atop the company's two-stage Falcon 9 rocket as planned today at 10:21 a.m. EDT (1421 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, headed for the orbiting lab. But something went wrong about two minutes into the flight, and the rocket broke apart, raining debris out of the sky.
"There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter today, which is, incidentally, his 44th birthday. "That's all we can say with confidence right now. Will have more to say following a thorough fault tree analysis." [See photos from the SpaceX cargo launch]
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on June 28, headed to the International Space Station. The rocket and capsule exploded shortly after liftoff.
Credit: NASA TV/Space.com
View full size image
SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion NASA contract to fly at least 12 unmanned supply runs to the space station. Today's liftoff kicked off mission number seven; the previous six flights had all been successful.
Dragon was carrying more than 4,000 lbs. (1,814 kilograms) of food, supplies and scientific experiments. The scientific gear included high-resolution cameras designed to observe and study meteors as they plow into Earth's atmosphere, as well as equipment that would have helped researchers better understand which microbes are present inside the space station, and how these organisms change and adapt over time.
Today's accident follows closely on the heels of two other cargo-mission failures. Orbital ATK's Antares rocket exploded shortly after liftoff this past October, scuttling the company's third robotic cargo mission. (Orbital ATK holds a $1.9 billion deal with NASA to make eight supply flights using Antares and its Cygnus spacecraft.)
And Russia's unmanned Progress 59 vessel fell back to Earth in May without reaching the space station, apparently done in by a problem with the third stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched it to space.
Despite this recent run of setbacks, the International Space Station (ISS) remains well-provisioned into the fall, NASA officials said.
"We're good to the October timeframe if no other vehicles show up," NASA ISS program manager Mike Suffredini said during a prelaunch press conference Friday (June 26). If Dragon had made it, the $100 billion orbiting complex would have been well-stocked through the end of the year, he added.
The next Progress freighter is due to launch July 3 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
SpaceX had also aimed to land the Falcon 9's first stage on an "autonomous spaceport drone ship" during today's launch, in a test of reusable-rocket technology. The company is trying to develop fully and rapidly reusable rockets, in order to slash the cost of spaceflight.
"A jumbo jet costs about the same as one of our Falcon 9 rockets, but airlines don't junk a plane after a one-way trip from LA to New York," SpaceX representatives wrote Thursday (June 25) about the company's reusable-rocket goals. "Yet when it comes to space travel, rockets fly only once — even though the rocket itself represents the majority of launch cost."
SpaceX had tried the rocket landing on the previous two Dragon launches, and nearly succeeded both times: The rocket stage hit the boat but came down too hard, toppling over and exploding on the deck.
Today's rocket failure nixed attempt number three, obviously.

Despite Rocket Explosion, New Crew Will Fly to Space Station
by Calla Cofield, Space.com Staff Writer   |   June 28, 2015 04:03pm ET

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying a robotic Dragon resupply capsule exploded less than three minutes after launch on June 28. The vehicle was bringing supplies to the International Space Station.
Credit: NASA TV/Space.com View full size image
Following the explosion of a SpaceX resupply vehicle headed for the International Space Station, officials said there are no immediate plans to reschedule the arrival of three new crew members to the station in July.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's robotic Dragon cargo vehicle exploded just over two minutes after liftoff from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:21 a.m. EDT (1421 GMT) today (June 28). Despite this being the third space station resupply vehicle to fail to reach its target in the last eight months, NASA officials said the crew is well supplied through October, with more supplies due to be delivered in the coming months.
Michaels Suffredini, NASA's program manager for the International Space Station program, said in a press conference following the rocket explosion that the current supply situation would have to be much more dire to consider bringing the current crew members home. In addition, there are no plans to cancel or reschedule the arrival of three new crew members to the station in July. [Explosion! SpaceX CRS-7 Mission Ends In Disaster (Video)]
Supply vehicles headed for the International Space Station carry a mixture of scientific experiments, equipment and hardware for the station, and supplies for the crew members who live there. Those supplies can include essentials like food, water, and oxygen, as well as items not crucial for survival.
Suffredini explained that the station is normally loaded with enough supplies to support the crew for six months; currently, the station is stocked for four months.
"If you have no means to get supplies up [to the station] at about 45 days before you get to zero, that's when we get into the process of planning the return of the crew," he said. "If the time comes and we decide we don't have the logistics to support the crew, we always have a vehicle there that can bring them home safely. And we would certainly do that, but we're not even close to that kind of conversation today based on the logistics we have on board."
SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo vehicle is the third resupply craft that has failed to reach the orbiting station in the last eight months. In October an Orbital ATK Antares rocket exploded seconds after it pushed off the launch pad carrying a cargo capsule. In June, the Russian Progress 59 cargo vehicle successfully separated from the rocket, but fell back to Earth before making its delivery.
More supplies are scheduled to be delivered to the station as early as next weekend on board the uncrewed Russian Progress 60P cargo vehicle, which is set to launch on July 3. Suffredini said that vehicle should provide the station crew with roughly an additional month's worth of supplies. In addition, a Japanese HTV supply vehicle is scheduled to rendezvous with the station sometime in August.
Meanwhile, the Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three new station crew members is scheduled to leave for the orbiting laboratory on July 22. The newcomers will join the three crew members currently on board: cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko, and astronaut Scott Kelly. Kelly and Kornienko are participating in a one year mission aboard the station.
"Certainly if we didn't see any vehicles on the horizon today, we would be considering whether or not to fly the three [upcoming] crew that we have ready," Suffredini said. "But again that's not the position we're in."
NASA officials emphasized in the press conference that while the loss of the SpaceX cargo vehicle was a disappointment, the agency has made contingency plans for these types of setbacks.
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and COO, said in the press conference that it is not yet clear what caused the explosion. Elon Musk, the company's founder, tweeted shortly after the explosion that there was an "overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank," but Shotwell could not offer any more information about that event or whether it played a part in the rocket explosion. She did note that the rocket's first stage separation appears to have proceeded nominally.
This is SpaceX's seventh resupply mission to the International Space Station; the previous six missions have all been successful. The company holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly at least 12 unmanned cargo missions to the orbiting outpost.

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UPDATED | SpaceX Falcon 9 Fails During ISS Cargo Launch
by Jeff Foust — June 28, 2015
Debris from a SpaceX Falcon 9 during a June 28 launch on a mission to the ISS. Credit: SpaceX webcast screen capture.
Updated 2:30 p.m. EDT.
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered a failure more than two minutes after liftoff June 28 on a mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, an accident that may have repercussions on both space station operations and the debate about funding for NASA's commercial crew program.
The Falcon 9 lifted off on schedule at 10:21 a.m. EDT Sunday after a problem-free countdown, and in good weather conditions. The launch appeared to be going well until a little more than two minutes after liftoff, when the first stage plume became irregular and, seconds later, the rocket appeared to disintegrate.
"The first stage flight was successful until 139 seconds into that flight. We experienced an anomaly that led to the failure of the mission," SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a NASA press conference nearly three hours after the failure.
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Video of the launch showed the anomaly started about 2 minutes and 19 seconds after launch, with a cloud forming near the top of the vehicle. It was not initially clear if that was the cause of the failure, or an effect of another problem with the rocket. "Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown," SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk tweeted shortly after the failure. "Will provide more info as soon as we review the data."
Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015
Musk later tweeted that the problem was an "overpressurization event" of the liquid oxygen tank in the rocket's second stage. "Data suggests counterintuitive cause," he said, without elaborating.
There was an overpressure event in the upper stage liquid oxygen tank. Data suggests counterintuitive cause. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2015
"We do not expect this to have been a first stage issue," Shotwell said at the briefing. "We saw some pressurization indications in the second stage, which we'll be tracking down and following up on there." She said she didn't have additional data about the second stage issue, and declined to speculate on the cause of the failure.
The mission was considered a commercial launch, and licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Pam Underwood of the FAA said at the briefing that SpaceX would lead what is officially termed a "mishap" investigation, with oversight of the FAA.
Neither Shotwell nor Underwood said how long the investigation would last, or its effect on SpaceX's launch schedule. "It certainly isn't going to be a year," Shotwell said of the length of the investigation. "I imagine a number of months or so."
NASA officials expressed their disappointment in the failure, but said they continued to support SpaceX and emphasized that the failure would not have an immediate effect on ISS operations.
"We are disappointed in the loss of the latest SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement issued two hours after the launch failure. "However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months."
"The space station crew is fine on orbit," William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said at the June 28 briefing. There are enough supplies on the station now to support the ISS crew through October, with a Progress cargo spacecraft slated for launch July 3 and a Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle cargo mission planned for August.
The failure is the first in 19 launches for the Falcon 9, which first launched five years ago. It is the first failure of a SpaceX launch vehicle since the third launch of its initial Falcon 1 small launch vehicle in August 2008.
The launch was the seventh in a series of cargo missions to the ISS under a SpaceX contract with NASA. The Dragon was carrying 1,950 kilograms of cargo for the station, including a docking adapter to allow future commercial crew vehicles to dock with the station. Also on board were supplies for the crew and a series of experiments.
The failure is the third involving an ISS cargo mission in eight months. An Orbital Sciences Corp. (now Orbital ATK) Antares rocket failed seconds after liftoff in Oct. 28 from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. A Progress spacecraft launched April 28 was placed in the wrong orbit by its Soyuz launch vehicle and reentered in May without docking at the ISS.
"We expected through the commercial cargo program that we would lose some vehicles," said Gerstenmaier. "I didn't think we'd lose them all in a one-year timeframe, but we have."
The failure also comes as both NASA reviews proposals from several companies for follow-on ISS cargo delivery contracts, and seeks full funding for its commercial crew program for fiscal year 2016. Appropriations bills in the House and Senate both fall short of the agency's request of $1.243 billion for the program, with the House bill providing $1 billion and the Senate bill $900 million. The Senate bill in particular was critical of what it perceived as delays in the development of crewed vehicles.
Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, remained optimistic about both SpaceX and overall commercialization efforts. "I think we just move forward," he said in a June 28 interview. "I think SpaceX will make adjustments and continue to fly."
He acknowledged that the failure will heighten skepticism about NASA's commercial crew efforts on Capitol Hill. "I know there will be debate, and questions raised, but I do believe you have to stay the course," he said. "We need to figure out what went wrong and continue to move foward and shoot for that 2017 date" when NASA anticipates those vehicles entering service, he said.
Bolden was also optimistic. "SpaceX has demonstrated extraordinary capabilities in its first six cargo resupply missions to the station, and we know they can replicate that success," he said in his statement. "Today's launch attempt will not deter us from our ambitious human spaceflight program."
Shortly after T+2 minutes, the NASA announcer says, "Everything coming back shows the vehicle on course, on track." The Falcon 9 then appears to explode. Credit: NASA TV

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U.S. Reliance on Russia for ISS Ops Grows With Falcon 9 Loss
Jun 28, 2015
Mark Carreau and Frank Morring, Jr. |
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

This much was clear as investigators began to probe the loss of the SpaceX Falcon 9/Dragon resupply mission loss: The U.S. is at least temporarily without a means of launching astronauts and cargo to the six-person International Space Station, placing a growing burden on Russia to do what it can to keep the outpost minimally equipped and staffed.
So far, tensions between Washington and Moscow over Russia's intrusion into Ukraine have not seeped into the deceptively tenuous U.S.-led day-to-day operations of the 15-nation station program.
However, Russia, too, is recovering from the failed April 28 launch of its Progress M-27M/59 ISS cargo mission. Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos, hopes to turn the loss around on July 3 with the launching of the Progress M-28M/60 cargo mission, but is slated to use the same Soyuz 2/1a launch vehicle that contributed to an out of control third-stage separation and subsequent uncontrolled re-entry with the loss of more than three tons of fuel, food, clothing, spare parts and other supplies.
That compounded the re-supply difficulties triggered by the Oct. 28 launch explosion of Orbital ATK's third Antares/Cygnus mission as it lifted off from Wallops Island, Va., with 4,800 pounds of supplies and science experiments, some of which were re-gathered and aboard the Falcon9/Dragon.
"We are disappointed in the loss of the latest SpaceX cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station," Administrator Charles Bolden stated Sunday. "However, the astronauts are safe aboard the station and have sufficient supplies for the next several months. We will work closely with SpaceX to understand what happened, fix the problem and return to flight. The commercial cargo program was designed to accommodate loss of cargo vehicles. "A Progress vehicle is ready to launch July 3, followed in August by a Japanese HTV flight. Orbital ATK, our other commercial cargo partner, is moving ahead with plans for its next launch later this year. "
Down to two Russian and one American crew member as a consequence of the Progress M-27M loss, the ISS is provisioned through October, less than the normal six-month supply cushion that NASA's Mike Suffredini, the ISS program manager, and his Mission Management Team prefer. Their expectation was that the lost Dragon CRS-7 mission, one of eight U. S. Russian and Japanese cargo flights planned for the remainder of this year, would restore the six-month cushion by the start of 2016.
"We're getting close to six months," Suffredini told a June 26 pre-launch news briefing. "It's not a hard requirement. We are trying to get there while still carrying the spare parts we need and of course all the research we need. But I think by the end of the year, we will be closer to where we would like to be, which is closer to about five to six months. We will try to stay there and gradually get ourselves all the way back up to six months."
Also lost aboard the Dragon CRS-7 was the first of two NASA/Boeing-developed International Docking Adaptors that were to fly to the station in 2015. NASA intended to install the IDA-1 with spacewalks late this summer to establish the first ISS docking port for its Commercial Crew Program Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX crewed Dragon vehicles by the end of 2015.
While NASA did not provide a cost estimate for the IDA-1, it is part of a $100 million development effort to equip the station with two docking ports for Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew vehicles.
The installation of IDA-1 on an external station docking port once used by NASA's retired space shuttle fleet was initially planned for late July. The installation was delayed by the Progress M-27M launch failure. Preparations to restore the ISS to six crew, including a second NASA astronaut for the spacewalk, were put on hold until July 22 so that the Russians could demonstrate a recovery from the failed launch before they placed U.S. Japanese and Russian astronauts on a normally reliable FG version of the Soyuz rocket.
Delivery of the second IDA was tentatively planned for the ninth Falcon 9/Dragon CRS mission planned for a Dec. 9 liftoff.
The loss of the first IDA compounds already mounting problems for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is seeking $1.24 billion in its 2016 budget to keep efforts in place to resume U.S. launchings of astronauts to the station by the end of 2017. House and Senate appropriators are providing hundreds of millions of dollars below the figure that NASA administrator Charles Bolden has warned is mandatory if the commercial crew initiative is to meet its target.
NASA's station-resupply strategy began to unravel on Oct. 28, as Orbital ATK's (then Orbital Sciences) third NASA contracted Antares/Cygnus re-supply mission exploded seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Va.,
An investigation into the cause of the mishap continues, though participants point to a failure of a turbopump in a Russian supplied first stage rocket engine.
Currently, Orbital ATK is prepping for the launching of its next ISS cargo mission in mid-November, using a United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch vehicle as a substitute for the Antares. Orbital intends to resume launchings at Wallops with a re-engined Antares next year.
The European Space Agency's reliable and capable ISS Automated Transfer Vehicle resupply missions came to an end in February after five flights. ESA has moved from ISS re-supply activities to partner with NASA for the development of a service module for the unpiloted Space Launch System/Orion Exploration Mission test flight planned for 2018.
Meanwhile, the space agency is in the process of re-competing its U. S. ISS commercial resupply needs in order to support an extension of station operations from 2020 to 2024.
SpaceX and Orbital led the way with contracts awarded in late 2008, $1.6 billion to SpaceX for at least 12 missions, $1.9 billion to Orbital ATK for at least eight flights.

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