SpaceX accident ‘most difficult and complex’ in its history, CEO Elon Musk says

After a week of public silence, Musk said via Twitter that the company is still investigating the accident, its second in just 15 months.

A massive fireball erupted during a pre-launch test on September 1 at the company’s main launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The Falcon rocket and a satellite were destroyed, and the pad was damaged. Ground crews were fuelling the Falcon for a brief test-firing of its engines, two days before its scheduled lift-off.

The blast rocked the launch pad – which had been cleared of workers for the test-firing – and shook buildings several miles away at Nasa’s neighbouring Kennedy Space Centre. The sound of explosions continued for several minutes and black smoke billowed into the morning sky.

Particularly puzzling, according to Musk, is “the quieter bang” heard a few seconds before what he is calling a fireball, not an explosion. He said the bang may have come from the rocket or something else.

“Important to note that this happened during a routine filling operation,” he said in a tweet. “Engines were not on and there was no apparent heat source.”