Incident on SpaceX landing pad could delay its first manned flight
- Announcement of ‘anomaly’ comes after speculation about a possible explosion, but neither SpaceX nor Nasa would provide any immediate detail
A mysterious but apparently serious incident occurred Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Florida involving the SpaceX capsule intended to carry American astronauts into space late this year, the private company and Nasa announced.
“Earlier today, SpaceX conducted a series of engine tests on a Crew Dragon test vehicle on our test stand at Landing Zone 1 in Cape Canaveral, Florida,” a SpaceX spokesman said in a statement. “The initial tests completed successfully but the final test resulted in an anomaly on the test stand.”
A photo on the Florida Today website showed large amounts of smoke pouring out of the test site, and there was speculation about a possible explosion, but neither SpaceX nor Nasa would provide any immediate detail.
Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine referred on Twitter only to an “anomaly”.
“This is why we test,” he added. “We will learn, make the necessary adjustments and safely move forward.”
