Monday, July 20, 2015
SpaceX Founder Musk: Structural Failure Took Down Falcon 9
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Hawthorne-based SpaceX, said Monday afternoon that the explosion of the company's rocket last month was due to a broken strut, which held a helium tank to the rocket's second stage. The failure resulted in a catastrophic explosion of the company's Falcon 9 on June 28th. Musk says that SpaceX hopes to recover from the issues, and resume cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as September. SpaceX--which, before the failure, had seen only success in its launches--said it had become "a little complacent" due to its successful track record, and was implementing a number of quality control and testing efforts, as well as enhanced software and monitoring abilities on the rocket.